Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)

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Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)


Photo © Chris van Swaay
FamilyPieridae
SubfamilyColiadinae
GenusColias
Speciescrocea
Authority(Geoffroy, 1785)
English NameClouded Yellow
European Red List 2010Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 Red List 2010Least Concern (LC)
European Red List 2025Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 Red List 2025Least Concern (LC)
Habitats Directive
Bern Convention
CITES

Description

In good summers, the Clouded Yellow is a very fast flyer and can be seen practically over the whole of Europe, often on fields of clover or lucerne, or other flower-rich vegetations. It lays its eggs one by one, on the leaves of such leguminous plants as Lucerne (Medicago sativa), clovers (Trifolium spp.), and vetches (Vicia spp.). It pupates, suspended in a silken girdle on the foodplant. In the south, it usually passes the winter as a caterpillar. In the north, because it cannot tolerate the cold, it only appears as a summer migrant, recolonizing from the south. This species has four to six broods a year.

Distribution

Albania / Andorra / Austria (Regular Migrant) / Belarus (Irregular Vagrant) / Belgium (Regular Migrant) / Belgium: Flanders (Regular Migrant) / Belgium: Wallonia (Regular Migrant) / Bosnia and Herzegovina (Regular Migrant) / Bulgaria / Croatia / Database Error: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Operation not permitted