aussietrev Northern Jezebel
Location: Queensland. Australia
September 19, 2011 10:14 pm
Hi guys,
Thought you might like to add this Northern Jezebel to your archive. Flitting through my vegetable patch dining from a radish let go to flower, they make a stunning sight.
Signature: aussietrev

Northern Jezebel

Hi Trevor,
Thanks so much for providing us with such a lovely photo of this beautiful member of the family Pieridae, the Whites and Sulfurs. According to the Butterfly House website of Australian species, the Northern Jezebel is Delias argenthona, and it is found in parts of New Guinea and Australia.  We cannot help but to wonder how this lovely species as well as its relatives have gotten the lascivious common name of Jezebel, and since we don’t have the time to research the matter, we are going to let our imaginations run wild.  Whenever we hear the name Jezebel, we immediately think of the classic black and white film starring Bette Davis as a headstrong Southern Belle who creates a scandal when she wears a red dress to a ball.  Red is a rare color among the members of the family Pieridae, so the almost garish markings on the Northern Jezebel and other members of the genus are most distinctive, and could have been a contributing factor in the selection of the common name.  You can see the red dress scene from Jezebel on YouTube.

White Butterfly with Black markings
Location: Gladstone, IL.
August 19, 2011 7:26 pm
I saw this butterfly beside a lake in the grasses and wild flowers. There were other whites there but I didn’t recognize this one as a Cabbage White or a Checkered White. I wasn’t able to see it with open wings. Thanks or your help!
Signature: Randy Anderson

Sulphur Butterfly: Pale Form

Dear Randy,
Though it looks like one of the Whites, this butterfly is actually a pale form female of one of the Sulphurs in the genus Colias, possibly the Orange Sulphur, Colias eurytheme, which is pictured on BugGuide including this image.  Some of the comments on that image include “With these albino sulphur females species you noted it is impoosible to tell one from the other with a photograph. You would need to disect them to tell which is which.” and “The rather smooth look below, shape of the wings, and very wide border on the front wings all fit this species. Not impossible to tell them apart, just difficult and confusing in some individuals.”  The other species in the genus with a light form female is the Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice, which is also represented on BugGuide.

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Spring in Full Swing!
Hello Daniel and Lisa,
04-21-11    At first I thought these butterflies were Spring Azures, then maybe Cabbage Whites, but neither of those have scallop-edged wings. Can you help me?
04-22-11    The moths were plentiful this morning on the wall under the safety light, and…watched a bird, think it was an Eastern Phoebe, having a snack or two as it flapped up and down the wall. (no photo available)
04-23-11    This morning, I was told by a couple of very early risers, a raccoon was climbing on that wall, holding on with three paws while scooping the moths into its mouth with the fourth! (again, no photo available :’( )
04-27-11    I believe this is a Bent-line Gray Moth, Iridopsis larvaria…
Hoping your Easter, holiday adventure was safe and happy,
R.G. Marion
Sevier County, TN
Great Smoky Mountains

Courting Orange Tips

Dear R.G.,
We absolutely love your photograph of the positively salacious behavior of the courting OrangeTips.  The female has her abdomen raised and she is quite possibly releasing pheromones into the air which have attracted the fluttering male with the sexually dimorphic namesake orange tips.  We are uncertain of the species, but an excellent candidate is the Falcate Orangetip, Anthocharis midea, which ranges all around Tennessee and is profiled on bugGuide.  It is the only Eastern species profiled on BugGuide.  We love this photo so much we are going to feature it.

Wow! Thanx!  I’m so pleased that you liked the photo of the “Courting” Orange Tips.  I do get lucky once in a while.
Since there hasn’t been a sighting reported in Tennessee according to the link that you included, I was wondering if it is possible that they were blown this way by all the storms we’ve been having here in the Southeast this month?  Do things like that happen in the fragile-bug world?  Or did I really get lucky?  Just curious…
R.G. Marion

Hi Again R.G.,
Since the OrangeTips were reported from all surrounding states, it is fair to assume that they are also found in Tennessee, but that there have just not been any submissions to bugGuide.

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Maui Cloudless Sulphur
Location: Waiehu, Maui
January 8, 2011 8:39 am
Aloha – found this bright one flitting about the shoreline in Waiehu. He settled on a naupaka kahakai which almost matched his coloring. It was very sensitive to my presence, so this is as close as I got without spooking him away. Being at the beach, with the bright yellow coloring, he stood out against the green naupaka and the sand colors.
A hui hou (until we meet again) ~
Signature: Eliza

Possibly Large Orange Sulphur

Dear Eliza,
Whenever we post a letter of a new species, or a familiar species in an unfamiliar location, we try to link to some other site to provide a reference.  We went to the Butterflies of Hawaii Website and it indicates that the Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe, is a newly recorded species that is known from Maui.  The University of Hawaii Insect Museum website does not picture any species in the family Pieridae.  We also found a Webshots Butterflies of Hawaii website, but again, the only Sulphur pictured is the Large Orange Sulphur.  Perhaps the Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae (see BugGuide), has also been introduced to Hawaii, but we cannot locate any internet reference to support that.  We are more comfortable identifying this as a Large Orange Sulphur, but there isn’t enough detail in your photograph to be certain.

Aloha Daniel -
Thanks for the speedy reply, as usual.
Hmmmm. What info do you need to further clarify – the size of the leaf it was on? Or?
Couldn’t get any closer – it bolted once from that area and came back.
Don’t know if it will be back there again and I don’t get over there often.
We certainly have the food sources it likes as an adult – hibiscus and bouganvilla are plentiful.
Happy weekend ~
Eliza

Hi Again Eliza,
If you compare the description and images of the Large Orange Sulphur on BugGuide with those of the Cloudless Sulphur on BugGuide, you will see that the two species are quite similar, hence our reluctance.  Our identification was based on the Large Orange Sulphur being well documented on Hawaii and there being no reports of the Cloudless Sulphur on Hawaii that we can find.  With that said, it is entirely possible the the Cloudless Sulphur has been introduced to Hawaii.

Appreciate the information, Daniel.
Understand now what I was not grokking.
Too bad that this yellow butterfly is considered ‘orange’.
If I can take a photo one with its wings open, I’ll send that on. But who knows when that will be. This is first time I’ve ever seen this butterfly, much less have a camera at hand.
Happy Sunday evening~
Eliza

Again Eliza, we cannot totally discount that this may be a Cloudless Sulphur.  We did need to increase our vocabulary by researching “grokking.”

Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein is the source of grok, Daniel.
I do understand why you lean towards the Orange vs the Cloudless. Totally reasonable deduction. Truly… not a problem that I was in error! Always happy to have clarification when there’s a piece of data I am not aware of.
EB

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