Did you know that not only can you ID most butterfly species in the field but you can also sometimes ID the sex of the individual as well?
Take a look at these two Clouded Sulphurs. Which one is a male?
- Left
- Right
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Click below to reveal the answer to this weeks’ quiz!
The butterfly on the right is the male Clouded Sulphur indicated by the solid black wing border on the butterfly’s upperside. The female has pale spots that interrupt this border and are often an off-yellow to white color. This can make them difficult to tell apart from Orange Sulphur females, which are also off-yellow to white in color. To make matters more difficult, the two species may hybridize in areas where their ranges overlap - like Vermont.
This is an example of a sexually dimorphic species or a species where each sex looks different. For different species, markers of sex may include color, extra appendages like tails, smaller field marks like stigma, size (females are usually bigger), or behavior like chasing other butterflies.
Male Clouded Sulphur by Cathy Perkins (iNaturalist)
Female Clouded Sulphur by Andrew Dewey (iNaturalist)
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