Colias meadii
Encyclopedia
The Mead's Sulphur is a butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 in the family Pieridae
Pieridae
The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing approximately 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and Asia. Most pierid butterflies are white, yellow or orange in coloration, often with black spots...

 found in North America. Its range includes the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the USA.

Flight period is from July to August.

Wingspan is from 35 to 44 mm.

Larvae feed on Trifolium spp. Astragalus alpinus
Astragalus alpinus
Astragalus alpinus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name alpine milkvetch. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It is widespread in Eurasia...

, Oxytropis deflexa, and Vicia americana
Vicia americana
Vicia americana is a species of legume in the vetch genus known by the common names American vetch and purple vetch. It includes a subspecies known as mat vetch. It is a climbing perennial forb that grows from both taproot and rhizome. The leaves are each made up of oblong leaflets and have...

.

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.
  • C. m. elis Strecker, 1885 (Alberta, British Columbia)
  • C. m. lemhiensis Curtis & Ferris, 1985 (Idaho, Montana)
  • C. m. meadii (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana)
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