Male Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) butterfly

A male Orange Tip butterfly rests with its wings closed on a grape hyacinth flower in early Spring.

The Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) is a butterfly in the Pieridae family. So named because of the male's bright orange tips to his forewings. The males are a common sight in spring flying along hedgerows and damp meadows in search of the more reclusive female which lacks the orange and is often mistaken for one of the other 'White' butterflies.

The undersides are mottled green and white and create a superb camouflage when settled on flowerheads such as Cow Parsley and Garlic Mustard Alliaria petiolata. The male is able to hide his orange tips by tucking the forwings behind the hindwings at rest. If you look closely at the mottling you will see that the green colour is in fact made up of a mixture of black and yellow scales.

It is found across Europe, and eastwards into temperate Asia as far as Japan. The past 30 years has seen a rapid increase in the range of the Orange Tip in the UK particularly in Scotland and Ireland, probably in response to climate change.

Description taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_tip

• Biota
• Life
• Vitae
• Eukaryota
• Animalia
• Animals
• Arthropoda
• Arthropods
• Insecta
• Insects
• Lepidoptera
• Moths
• Butterflies
• Skippers
• Pieridae
• Sulphurs & Whites
• Muscari
• Grape Hyacinth
• Anthocharis
• Orangetips
• Anthocharis cardamines
• Orange Tip
• Wings closed
• Resting

• Adobe Camera RAW