Family Pieridae

Caterpillar foods: Alfalfa and other plants in the Pea family (Fabaceae)

Orange Sulphurs are very similar to Clouded Sulphurs – we have both here.   The tops of Orange Sulphurs’ wings are partly orange and Clouded Sulphurs’ are all yellow, but since the tops of their wings aren’t usually visible unless they’re flying, it’s hard to get a photo of them.  Females can be either orange and yellow, like the males, or greenish white.  (White females look nearly the same as white Clouded Sulphur females.)

9/26/2025

 

7/24/2023  I found this caterpillar crawling on my backpack.  Fed it legumes, but it didn’t eat much – it was nearly ready to pupate.

 

7/29/2023  Pupa

 

8/3/2023  Pupa – nearly ready to open

 

8/5/2023  Newly emerged adult

 

8/5/2023  Spent pupa

 

Mike took this photo on January 28, 2002.  I wonder what an Orange Sulphur was doing flying around in January.  They overwinter as chrysalises – maybe there was a spell of warm weather and it emerged too soon.  This shows the wide black and yellow bands on the edges of the female’s wings.

 

9/24/2025  A mixed group of Sulphurs – Clouded and Orange – on New England Aster

 

Orange Sulphur lifecycle – I found the caterpillar on 7/24/2023, and the adult emerged on 8/5/2023.