Does the Orange sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme) lay eggs on the red clover as well as white clover?

Question

I know it lays eggs on the Alfalfa plant but there is no alfalfa around here, to my knowledge. I have to illlustrate and teach about the life cycle of this butterfly and the red clover is much prettier to paint but I don't know if it is a host plant. Are there any good web sites that show the life cycles of butterflies, clearly, so the pictures can be used as reference for natural science illustration?

Answer 1

Are you talking about North America? This site explains the life-cycle, mostly as text.

It lists host-plants in North America as

Caterpillar hosts: Plants in the pea family (Fabaceae) including alfalfa (Medicago sativa), white clover (Trifolium repens), and white sweet clover (Melilotus alba).

i.e. The list doesn't include red-clover, implying that red-clover isn't a host-plant in North America. I don't know whether the situation is any different in other parts of the world.

Google Image search is good for finding pictures of the Orange sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme) at different stages of development (larva etc), but not neccesarily all together in one life-cycle picture. See links.

The links are searches for pictures relating to :-

Orange sulphur butterfly
Orange sulfur butterfly i.e. US spelling of sulphur
Colias eurytheme

and one picture of a larva

Don't forget to search picture/info sites etc for UK/US spelling and latin version of the name.

Click a picture to visit the site the picture resides on and you may find more info.

You might also try photo-sharing sites for pictures, such as www.flickr.com (lots of photos on different plants but I don't know the plant-names), www.webshots.com, etc.

One link is just images of butterfly life cycles in general, for ideas on how to illustrate yours.

P.S. I just found a picture of the Orange Sulphur on Red Clover on a stock photograph site. Click the www.visualsunlimited.com link below, search for 'orange sulfur' (US spelling), the right hand of 3 photos is on red clover. Click to enlarge.

It says -

Orange Sulfur Butterfly (Colias eurytheme) on Red Clover (Trifolium pratense).

This shows it does go on red clover, but not whether this is to feed or lay eggs and also doesn't say which country it is. Anyway, I hope all this stuff gives you some ideas on places to look for what you need.

Answer 2

Red clover is a food source for the Orange Sulphur butterfly, and larvae are also found on it.

There is a photo "Orange Sulphur on Red Clover (J. Burger)" in
Butterflies of New Jersey: A Guide to Their Status, Distribution, Conservation, and Appreciation by Michael Gochfeld, Joanna Burger.

You can get a watercolour painting of the Orange Sulphur Life Cycle at http://www.butterflybuzz.com/site/561023/product/AR1010, but that's probably not what you were looking for.