Clouded Yellow but which one?

brianholland · #1 (**permalink**) 13-10-2009, 07:24 PM

My wife spotted a pair of these delightful butterflies when we visited Shotley in Suffolk.
We are pretty sure that this image is of a clouded yellow but which one please?
There appears to be several species and we are confused.

aeshna5 · #2 (**permalink**) 13-10-2009, 07:53 PM

Colias croceus- the common Clouded Yellow is the species normally encountered, though numbers vary from year to year as a basically immigrant species + this has been a good year for them. There is a helice version that can be confused with the extremely rare (in UK) Pale Clouded Yellow.

Berger's Clouded Yellow is even rarer + I can't remember when 1 was last claimed in the UK.

You will be extremely lucky to see any other than the first species mentioned here in the UK.

brianholland · #3 (**permalink**) 14-10-2009, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Colias croceus- the common Clouded Yellow is the species normally encountered, though numbers vary from year to year as a basically immigrant species + this has been a good year for them. There is a helice version that can be confused with the extremely rare (in UK) Pale Clouded Yellow.

Berger's Clouded Yellow is even rarer + I can't remember when 1 was last claimed in the UK.

You will be extremely lucky to see any other than the first species mentioned here in the UK.

Thank you so much for this information.
I was getting confused after looking in our insect book but you have clarified the matter.

I will amend my records.

Regards,

Brian.