It is the male that is bright yellow, the female is a pale yellow almost white. I am reminded of the orange tip butterfly, the female of this species is white and I wonder how often they are disposed of by gardeners who believe them to be cabbage whites. I recently spoke with an elderly gentleman weeding his vegetable patch and he told me, he killed all white butterflies believing them all to be bad. as we spoke he pointed out an orange tip butterfly and I was able to tell him the females of this butterfly were white. He was quite shocked to think how many he had killed over the years.
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| Brimstones feed on the nectar of bluebells, which are plentiful in the garden. |
Amongst other flowers they feed on the nectar from dandelions, primroses, cowslips and bluebells, fortunately we have all of these in abundance in the garden. The eggs are laid on the leaves of the buckthorn, they are pale green at first, changing to yellow and then grey as the larva develops.
One to two weeks later as a caterpillar it feasts on buckthorn leaves, from this stage it pupates, this time becoming a pupa, fascinatingly it looks like a curled leaf. Two weeks later the beautiful Brimstone butterfly emerges.
Of course spring flowers have now disappeared, but there are other flowers taking their place including beautiful Buddleias (Buddlejahs), these blooms are much loved by many butterflies, bees and other insects. They are also a welcome flower for us having a delightful perfume and very attractive flowers.
Interestingly these butterflies stay with us throughout the winter, hibernating, often in dense ivy and appearing once the warmer spring weather comes.
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