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Life Cycle: Caterpillar ranges up to 5/8", dark
green with purple stripes on its back, and parallel black and yellow
stripes on the side. Caterpillars feed on sneezeweed, both bur and
garden variety marigolds, pinks and chickweeds. Chrysalis is smooth,
green. Flight: Year-round in south, later northward.
Habitat:
Disturbed areas, grasslands, canyons, dry streambeds, watercourses,
railroad rights-of-way.
Range: Resident in southern California,
Arizona and Gulf States, south into Mexico. Emigrants to Midwest and
Manitoba; rarely into northwest or northeast U.S.
Dwarf
Yellows emigrate northwards every spring following river corridors.
They reproduce rapidly and can live in dry, weedy areas. Yet they
cannot withstand cold weather, and die off every autumn.
Photographed February 11, 2003 at San Antonio, Texas. Ambient
temperature 65 degrees, sunny. The dainty sulphur butterfly is the
smallest North American Pierid. This mating pair was found in a dry
creek bed - dainty sulphurs are known to use creeks and rivers as
their migratory routes northward each spring.
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