For the Roman cognomen, see Colias (cognomen).

Clouded yellows
Colias libanotica heldreichi specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Hexapoda
Class:	Insecta
Subclass:	Pterygota
Infraclass:	Neoptera
Superorder:	Endopterygota
Order:	Lepidoptera
(unranked):	Rhopalocera
Superfamily:	Papilionoidea
Family:	Pieridae
Subfamily:	Coliadinae
Tribe:	Coliadini
Genus:	Colias Fabricius, 1807
Species
Numerous, see text

Colias is a genus of butterflies in the family Pieridae. They are usually called clouded yellows; the North American name "sulphurs" is elsewhere used for Coliadinae in general. The closest living relative is the genus Zerene^[1], which is sometimes included in Colias.

Wing venation

This genus occurs throughout the Americas, including the arctic regions. They are also found in Africa, China and India. Their caterpillars feed on certain Fabaceae, for example vetches (Vicia). While most are thus beneficial by keeping weeds at bay, some occasionally become nuisance pests on crops like alfalfa. In some species, the wings of males have brilliant UV reflection, while those of females do not.^[2].

Most if not all species of this genus, as usual for Coliadinae, do not sequester toxins or other noxious compounds from their food plants. They are therefore a well-loved prey item of insectivores as compared to Pieris of the related Pierinae. They make up this disadvantage by being more nimble and better able to evade attacks by would-be predators.^[3]

Notable lepidopterologists who did many studies on this genus included J. Malcolm Fawcett, George B. Johnson and Henry Rowland-Brown.

[edit] Systematics

Hybridization runs rampant in these butterflies, confounding molecular phylogenetics studies. In general, cladistic analyses of only one type of data (particularly mtDNA sequences) cannot be considered reliable. Regardless, the evolutionary distance within some "species" is so large that cryptic speciation rather than (or in addition to) interbreeding seems to be the cause. For example, the Beringian populations traditionally assigned to the Northern Clouded Yellow (C. hecla) could warrant recognition as a species; hybridization between North American and Asian populations seems to have played a role in their evolution, but as a whole they appear to be a rather old and distinct lineage.^[4]

Mountain Clouded Yellow (C. phicomone)

[edit] Selected species^[5]

• Colias adelaidae (Verhulst, 1991)
• Colias aegidii (Verhulst, 1990)
• Colias alpherakii (Staudinger, 1882)
• Colias alexandra (W.H. Edwards, 1863) – Queen Alexandra's Sulphur, Alexandra Sulfur, Ultraviolet Sulfur
• Colias aquilonaris (Grum-Grshimailo, 1899)
• Colias arida (Alphéraky, 1889)
• Colias audre (Hemming, 1933)
• Colias aurorina (Herrich-Schäffer, 1850) – Dawn Clouded Yellow
• Colias baeckeri (Kotzsch, 1930)
• Colias balcanica (Rebel, 1901)
• Colias behrii (W.H. Edwards, 1866) – Behr's Sulphur
• Colias berylla (Fawcett, 1904) – Everest Clouded Yellow
• Colias boothi (Curtis, 1835) – Arctic Green Sulfur
• Colias canadensis (Ferris, 1982) – Canada Sulphur
• Colias caucasica (Staudinger, 1871) – Clouded Yellow
• Colias chippewa (W.H. Edwards, 1872) – Heath Sulphur
• Colias chlorocoma (Christoph, 1888)
• Colias christina (W.H. Edwards, 1863) – Christina Sulphur
• Colias christophi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1885)
• Colias chrysotheme (Esper, 1781) – Lesser Clouded Yellow
• Colias cocandica (Erschoff, 1874)
• Colias croceus (Geoffroy, 1785) – Dark Clouded Yellow or Common Clouded Yellow
• Colias dimera (Doubleday, 1847)
• Colias diva (Grum-Grshimailo, 1891)
• Colias dubia (Fawcett, 1906) – Dwarf Clouded Yellow
• Colias electo (Linnaeus, 1763) – African Clouded Yellow
• Colias elis (Strecker, 1885) (often included in C. meadii; paraphyletic?)
• Colias eogene (C. & R. Felder, 1865) – Fiery Clouded Yellow
• Colias erate (Esper, 1805) – Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow
  • Colias erate formosana (Shirôzu, 1955)
  • Colias (erate) nilagiriensis (C. & R. Felder, 1859) – Nilgiri Clouded Yellow
  • Colias erate poliographus (Motschulsky, 1860)
• Colias erschoffi (Alphéraky, 1881)
• Colias eurytheme (Boisduval, 1852) – Orange Sulphur, Alfalfa Butterfly
• Colias euxanthe (C. & R. Felder, 1865)
• Colias felderi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1891)
• Colias fieldii (Ménétriés, 1855) (sometimes included in C. electo)

Danube Clouded Yellow (C. myrmidone).
Left = upperside pattern
Right = underside pattern.

• Colias flaveola (Blanchard, 1852)
• Colias gigantea (Strecker, 1900) – Great (Northern) Sulphur
• Colias grumi (Alpheraky)
• Colias harfordii (W.H. Edwards, 1877)
• Colias hecla (Lefèbvre, 1836) – Northern Clouded Yellow or Hecla Sulphur (paraphyletic?)
  • Colias hecla glacialis (McLachlan, 1878)
  • Colias hecla hecla (Skinner & Mengel, 1892)
  • Colias hecla hela (Strecker, 1880)
  • Colias hecla orientis (Wnukowsky, 1929)
  • Colias hecla sulitelma (Aurivillius, 1890)
  • Colias hecla zamolodchikovi (Churkin & Grieshuber, 2001)
• Colias heos (Herbst, 1792)
• Colias hofmannorum (Eckweiler, 2000)
• Colias hyale (Linnaeus, 1758) – Pale Clouded Yellow
• Colias hyperborea (Grum-Grshimailo, 1899)
• Colias interior (Scudder, 1862) – Pink-edged Sulphur
• Colias johanseni (Troubridge & Philip, 1990) – Johansen's Sulphur
• Colias krauthii (Klots, 1935)
  • Colias krauthii kluanensis (Ferris, 1981) (sometimes placed in C. alexandra or C. christina)
• Colias lada (Grum-Grshimailo, 1891)
• Colias ladakensis (Felder & Felder, 1865) – Ladakh Clouded Yellow
• Colias leechi (Grum-Grshimailio, 1893)
• Colias lesbia (Fabricius, 1775)
• Colias libanotica (Lederer, 1858) (sometimes included in C. aurorina)
  • Colias libanotica heldreichi (Ferris, 1981)
• Colias marcopolo (Grum-Grshimailo, 1888)
• Colias meadii (W.H. Edwards, 1871) – Mead's Sulphur
• Colias montium (Oberthür, 1886)
• Colias mukana (Berger, 1981)
• Colias myrmidone (Esper, 1781) – Danube Clouded Yellow
• Colias nastes (Boisduval, 1834) – Labrador Sulphur
• Colias nebulosa (Oberthür, 1894)
• Colias nina (Fawcett, 1904) – Fawcett's Clouded Yellow
• Colias occidentalis (Scudder, 1862) – Western Sulphur or Golden Sulfur
• Colias palaeno (Linnaeus, 1761) – Moorland Clouded Yellow or Palaeno Sulphur
• Colias pelidne (Boisduval & Le Conte, 1829) – Blueberry Sulphur or Pelidne Sulphur
• Colias phicomone (Esper, 1777) – Mountain Clouded Yellow
• Colias philodice (Godart, 1819) – Common Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur
  • Colias (philodice) eriphyle (W.H. Edwards, 1876)
  • Colias (philodice) vitabunda (Hovanitz, 1943)
• Colias ponteni (Wallengren, 1860)
• Colias pseudochristina (Ferris, 1989)
• Colias regia (Grum-Grshimailo, 1887)
• Colias romanovi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1885)
• Colias sagartia (Lederer, 1869)
• Colias sareptensis (Staudinger, 1871) – Berger's Clouded Yellow
• Colias scudderii (Reakirt, 1865) – Willow Sulphur
• Colias shahfuladi (Clench & Shoumatoff, 1956)
• Colias sieversi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1887)
• Colias sifanica (Grum-Grshimailo, 1891)
• Colias staudingeri (Alphéraky, 1881)
• Colias stoliczkana (Moore, 1882) – Orange Clouded Yellow
• Colias tamerlana (Staudinger, 1897)
• Colias thisoa (Ménétriés, 1832)
• Colias thrasibulus (Fruhstorfer, 1908) – Lemon Clouded Yellow
• Colias thula (Hovanitz, 1955) – Thula Sulphur
• Colias tibetana (Riley, 1922)
• Colias tyche (de Böber, 1812) – Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow or Booth's Sulphur
• Colias viluiensis (Ménétriés, 1859)
• Colias wiskotti (Staudinger, 1882)

[edit] Gallery

Colias aurorina heldreichi, ♂	Colias myrmidone, ♂	Colias eurytheme, ♂	Colias croceus, ♂
Colias croceus, ♀ f.helice	Colias chrysotheme ♂ ♀	Colias philodice ♀	Colias philodice ♀ f.alba
Colias philodice, ♂	Colias alfacariensis, ♂	Colias hyale, ♂	Colias hyale, ♀
Colias palaeno, ♂	Colias palaeno, ♀	Colias phicomone, ♂

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Colias

• Brower, Andrew V.Z. (2006a): Tree of Life Web Project - Coliadinae. Version of 2006-NOW-16. Retrieved 2008-AUG-07.
• Brower, Andrew V.Z. (2006b): Tree of Life Web Project - Colias. Version of 2006-NOW-16. Retrieved 2008-AUG-07.
• Lim, M.L.M. & Li, D. (2005): Extreme ultraviolet sexual dimorphism in jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 89(3): 397-406. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2006.00704.x (HTML abstract)
• Srygley, Robert B. & Kingsolver, Joel G. (1998): Red-wing blackbird reproductive behaviour and the palatability, flight performance, and morphology of temperate pierid butterflies (Colias, Pieris, and Pontia). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 64(1): 41–55. HTML fulltext
• Wheat, Christopher W. & Watt, Ward B. (2008): A mitochondrial-DNA-based phylogeny for some evolutionary-genetic model species of Colias butterflies (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 47(3): 893-902. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.03.013 (HTML abstract, supplement available to subscribers)

[edit] External links

• RusinsectsPhotos and text relating to Palaearctic species.