Colias erate, commonly known as the eastern pale clouded yellow, is a species of butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found from south-eastern Europe, through Turkey over central Asia up to Japan and Taiwan. To the south, its range stretches to Somalia and Ethiopia. The species was first described by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in 1805.[1] [2]
The butterfly flies in May to September in two generations.
The larvae feed on various Fabaceae species, such as Medicago sativa and Medicago, Trifolium, Onobrychis and Melilotus species.
The wingspan is 23–26 mm. the Central Asian butterflies are generally larger than European ones. C. erate has slightly more pointed wingtips than related species. Like most Colias species, Colias erate has yellow ground colouration. Females with whitish tinged wings are sometimes found in Europe and predominate in Central Asia. The butterflies are extremely variable in their colouring and therefore very difficult to distinguish from similar species of the same genus. The wing tops are lemon yellow in color and have a broad black colored outer edge. Around the wing tip, the black also runs towards the leading edge. In the males the black is strong and only with little or no yellow submarginal spots interspersed, in the females it is pale and moreover includes several such spots. Approximately in the middle of the forewing, slightly offset from the front edge, there is a small black spot. The upper sides of the hind wings are also colored lemon yellow, but lightly dusted with dark. A large part of the outer edge is also darkly edged,but not as broadly. In the females, the black is again significantly paler and in places interrupted by yellow. There is an orange spot in the middle of the wing. The undersides of both pairs of wings are more strongly coloured yellow and slightly dusted with dark olive green. The entire edge is finely reddish edged. The black spot on the forewings is also found on the underside along with a few other submarginal spots along the outer edge. Instead of the orange spot, there is a lighter, reddish-edged spot on the hind wings, bordered by another very small spot. The dark row of submarginal spots on the forewings continues on the outer edge of the hindwings, but is only faintly discernible. [3]
Frederic Moore (1882) gives a detailed description for C. e. lativitta: