The Butterflies of the British IslesSouth, Richard
Science
The Butterflies of the British Isles
South, Richard
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Butterflies -- Great Britain -- Identification; Lepidoptera -- Great Britain
The Pale Clouded Yellow was not mentioned as an English butterfly
until Lewin wrote about it in 1795. He states that he only met with it
"in the Isle of Sheppey and on a hilly pasture-field near Ospringe in
Kent." He seems to have noted it in different years at both places.
Stephens, in 1827, referred to it as a rare British species, and from
that date until 1867 it seems to have been common only in 1835, 1842,
1857, and 1858. In 1868 it was abundant in the southern and eastern
counties, and was observed as far north as Lancashire and Yorkshire,
also in Ireland. It was common on the south coast in 1872, and rather
more so in 1875, when it spread into Essex and Suffolk, and also inland.
Until 1875 the butterflies seem only to have been noticed in the
autumnal months, but in that year specimens had been seen in May and
June. In 1876 the species was pretty plentiful, but after that date it
did not again occur in numbers until 1892, when it was recorded from
most of the southern and eastern counties. In 1893 one or two specimens
were reported as seen in April or May, but less than a dozen were
recorded as captured during the autumn of that year. Not much was seen
of the butterfly again until 1899, when a score or so were recorded from
Kent. Two or three specimens were seen on the south coast in June, 1900,
and the species was plentiful in the autumn of that year in many parts
of the country. Single specimens were seen in June, 1901, and in the
autumn the butterfly was again fairly common in several southern
counties, and abundant in parts of Essex. In 1902 a male was taken near
Dartford in March, and one example in May in a locality where two
specimens had been captured on October 20 of the previous year; six
males and one female were obtained between June 27 and July 12 at
Sheerness. The summer of 1902 was a cold one, and, with the exception of
four specimens at Folkestone in August, the species was not again seen
during that year or the following one; but in 1904 a good many specimens
were secured at Chatham in September, and one or two at Margate in
August.
[Illustration: _Pl._ 20.
=Pale Clouded Yellow Caterpillar.=
(_After Hübner._)]
[Illustration: _Pl._ 21.
=Pale Clouded Yellow.=
1, 2 _male_; 3, 4 _female_.]
When it occurs in this country the butterfly should be looked for in
clover and lucerne fields.
Common throughout the Palæarctic Region. It is probably a species of
Eastern origin, but with a tendency to spread westward.
The Clouded Yellow (_Colias edusa_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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