What plants attract sulfur butterflies?

How to Attract Clouded Sulphur Butterflies. Attract these beauties to your butterfly garden with lots of nectar plants, including coneflowers. Their host plants include alfafa, clovers, and members of the vetch family.

Do cloudless sulphurs migrate?

In late summer, cloudless sulphurs from as far north as Canada begin moving southward. Using the sun to keep them on course, these large, showy yellow butterflies migrate only about 12 miles a day. During migration, cloudless sulphurs rarely stop long enough to feed.

What kind of plant does the cloudless sulphur butterfly live in?

The caterpillars are usually nocturnal, building their own tents in the host plants to spend the day inside. The host plant may be partridge pea (Chamaecrista cinerea), sennas (Senna), clovers (Trifolium), or other legumes (Fabaceae). The caterpillar will usually grow to a length between 41 and 45 mm (1.6 and 1.8 in).

How did the cloudless sulphur plant get its name?

Its genus name is derived from Phoebe the sister of Apollo, a god of Greek and Roman mythology (Opler and Krizek 1984). The specific epithet, sennae is for the genus Senna to which many of the cloudless sulphur’s larval host plants belong.

Why does the cloudless sulphur butterfly turn yellow?

Unfortunately, this causes many farmers and gardeners to rip the plants out. The caterpillars are often considered elusive pests, because they turn green when eating green leaves and turn yellow when eating yellow flowers. Caterpillars grow thousands of times their hatchling size before pupating.

What does the chrysalis of a cloudless sulphur look like?

If they eat the yellow flowers of the cassia plants they’re feeding on, they’ll often turn a gorgeous bright yellow instead. The chrysalis of a Cloudless Sulphur has evolved to look like a leaf.