Colias heos

Colias heos is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in the East Palearctic (Altai to southern Siberia, Mongolia to Ussuri, southeastern China).

Female

Colias heos
Upperside
Underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Colias
Species:	C. heos
Binomial name
Colias heos Herbst, 1792 [1]
Synonyms
Papilio aurora Esper, 1783 (preocc.) Colias aurora ab. obscura Moltrecht, 1909 Colias sibirica Lederer, 1852 Colias kenteana Rühl, 1895 Colias semenovi Shtandel, 1960

Description

C. aurora (heos) is a beautiful dark orange-red species. The veins are thinly black, being yellow however in the black marginal band. The hindwing is somewhat dusky, being again lighter before the black distal margin; the costa of the forewing is yellow, the moderately large middle spot of the forewing pale centred, the large orange-red middle spot of the hindwing contrasting with the ground. The underside of a beautiful yellow, with sparse markings, the black middle spot of the forewing pale centred, and that of the hindwing the colour of mother of pearl, edged with brownish, being sometimes double. The female has the ground colour orange red, or yellow, or white; the white females are named ab. chloe Eversmann; in the marginal band there are yellow spots, which are often united on the hindwing to form a band. decolorata Staudinger, from Dauria, is a lighter coloured local form.

Biology

The larva feeds on Vicia, Astragalus, Trifolium lucanicum

Subspecies

• C. h. heos
• C. h. alpina Verity, 1911 Altai, Sayan
• C. h. semenovi Shtandel, 1960
• C. h. thia Bang-Haas, 1934 "Kansu mer. occ., Meitschouan, Minschan. Anfang Juli- 2000 m"
• C. h. vespera O. Bang-Haas, 1929 "Kansu, Gebirge bei Lantschou"

Taxonomy

Accepted as a species by Josef Grieshuber & Gerardo Lamas ^[2]