Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
2024 photographs highlighted in yellow. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
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| 3909_male_Alpes-de-Haute-Provence_15Aug06 | 6666_male_Alpes-Maritimes_8Jun07 | 40496_male_Var_11May16 | 29518_female_Var_22May12 |
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| 13707_female_Vaucluse_23Aug08 | 6719_female_Alpes-Maritimes_9Jun07 | 6721_female_Alpes-Maritimes_9Jun07 |
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This is a very attractive butterfly which, like many migratory species, appears in May/June and returns in great numbers in September and later. Having seen so many Berger's Clouded Yellows (C. alfacariensis), including many quite bright yellow ones, I am no longer 100% certain of identifying these two species accurately without a good look. |
Just to confuse the issue, the crocea female has a white form known as helice, which makes up about 10% of the female population (although it seems rather more than this in Var), and the female alfacariensis unf is also white. There is also an intermediary form known as helicina. There is also a rare sulfur form (see comments on 29518 below).
A superb video of the life-cycle of crocea has been produced by Filming VarWild and can be viewed on YouTube here: |
| ref | sex |
observations |
alt. m |
| 3909 | M |
a rather dirty ground colour (altitude effect?) even though the specimen is quite fresh, and delicate slightly pink edging to both wings (I've never noticed this before - maybe it's an advantage of the close-up shot). There are no upf apical markings visible through the wing indicating male, and the hindwing margin is quite straight which also confirms male. The unh discal spot is very large and heavily ringed and silvery inside, and the second, usually vestigial, spot is large. |
1800 |
| 6666 | M |
a male crocea taking salts. |
330 |
| 40496 | M | a male roosting at the end of the day. | 220 |
| 29518 | F | a female with a rather dull colouration. There is a rare sulfur yellow form of crocea and I wonder if this might be an example. Information on this form seems very scarce and the only reference I can find is in TLID. It seemed very different to any crocea I have ever seen and the species is common in Provence. | 20 |
| 13707 | F |
a female. The apical yellow marks are showing through quite clearly (in the male, the black areas are solid) and the hindwing is rather rounded. |
750 |
| 6719 | F |
a female of the form helice. It is sometimes considered that helice makes up about 10% of the UK population of female crocea, although my experience suggest that that percentage is higher in southern France. Identification is not a problem in the UK as there is nothing similar, but in France the upperside of the female alfacariensis is white and looks, at least superficially, very similar. The underside is 6721. |
1000 |
| 6721 | F |
the underside of 6719. The pastel yellow of the unf indicates crocea of the form helice, whereas the female alfacariensis is white in this area. |
1000 |
3909_male_Alpes-de-Haute-Provence_15Aug06
6666_male_Alpes-Maritimes_8Jun07
6719_female_Alpes-Maritimes_9Jun07
6721_female_Alpes-Maritimes_9Jun07
