November 16, 2009
The butterflies inhabit a pond shared with 10 crocodiles in a village called Banani.

Puddling Caper Whites in Mali

This village is one of 10 Dogon villages located beneath the Bandiagara Escarpment which contains ancient Tellem cave dwellings in Mali, West Africa.
AJ

Puddling Caper Whites in Mali

Dear AJ,
Your photos are stunningly beautiful.  These butterflies are a species in the group known as Whites in the family Pieridae.  The butterflies are puddling, drinking water with dissolved chemical salts.  This unusual practice is characteristic of many butterflies the world over.  We will try to identify the exact species when we have time.  We found one photo online on a Harvard website labeled Brown Veined White Butterfly that looks very close to your specimens.  Continued searching found another visual match on the Birdman in Tanzania website, and the Brown Veined White is identified as Belenois aurota.  The species often has spectacular migrations with thousands of individuals.  The Marketgid Website also calls the species the Caper White.  Maybe Karl can take a stab at this ID.

Puddling Caper Whites in Mali

What is this butterfly?
October 8, 2009
This butterfly has black edges and the rest is yellow other than one black spot on each upper wing and one yellow spot on each lower wing. I would really just like the scientific name.
scientific name?
Manchester, NH

Clouded Sulphur

Dear scientific name?
This is a Sulphur Butterfly in the genus Colias.  We believe it is a female Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice.  It is the white form of the female, a common variation.  Both the Clouded Sulphur and the Orange Sulphur, Colias eurytheme, have a white form female.  According to BugGuide, the best way to distinguish the two from one another is:  “The white form female philodice can often be separated from the white form female eurytheme by the HW outer margin. In philodice the HW outer margin will have a more narrow smoother solid black border, while eurytheme most often has an irregular and wider black border, many times with diffuse white markings within the black border.“  BugGuide also has photos that illustrate this difference.  Actually, upon closer inspection, we believe this to be the typical yellow form of the female Clouded Sulphur.  The female can be distinguished from the male in that the black borders on the wings of the female have spots, and the male has solid black borders.

What type of sulphur butterfly is this?
Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:29 AM
I took a picture of this butterfly while in South Florida on the edge of the Loxahatchee River. I would say the plants in the area are typical of south florida and or wetlands. I found various sulphur butterflies, but I could not find any that were the same green color and am hoping you could help me to identify it.
Madcalabrian
Riverbend Park, Jupiter Florida

Cloudless Sulphur

Dear Madcalabrian,
This sure looks like a Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae, to us.  According to BugGuide, the Cloudless Sulphur may be identifiede by the following description:  “upperside of male wings lemon yellow or pale greenish-yellow with no markings; female forewing with small dark spot, usually a narrow blackish outer margin, and a few vague dark dots near tip. Underside of hindwing with two silver black-rimmed spots in both sexes.”  This butterfly breeds in the Southern states and strays north in the fall.