Colias lesbia is a species of butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in the Neotropical realm.
Description
Specimens from south Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina differ so little that they cannot be separated. This form is in the male dark orange yellow, specimens with violet reflections are not rare; the black-brown distal margin is not sharply defined proximally. The under surface with the exception of the reddish middle of the forewing is vivid yellow with the usual Colias marking. The ground colour of the upper surface in the females is very variable: orange yellow, yellow, yellowish or white with grey dusting; greenish-grey specimens also occur.
Biology
Flies from November to January.
Taxonomy
It was accepted as a species by Josef Grieshuber and Gerardo Lamas.
C. l. lesbia (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), Uruguay)
C. l. andina Staudinger, 1894 (Bolivia) from 3000–4000 metres asl, sprinkled with blackish
C. l. dinora Kirby, 1881 (Ecuador, Colombia) 4000 —5,500 metres asl orange-yellow, with washed-out, moderately broad dark distal margin to the forewing; the hindwing has a submarginal row of small, dark, inconspicuous spots. The under surface on the forewing is somewhat lighter, on the hindwing somewhat darker than the upper, the median spot is white, small and margined with reddish. The female has lemon-yellow ground colour and yellow spots in the dark distal margin of the forewing.
C. l. mineira Zikán, 1940 (Brazil (Minas Gerais))
C. l. vauthierii Guérin-Méneville, (Chile, Argentina) is in the male above orange red with broad black-brown margin and median spot of the same colour on the forewing, the black-brown margin of the hindwing is much narrower and is suddenly reduced towards the inner angle; the hindwing has a smaller, indistinct dark median spot. The under surface of the forewing is orange red, at the margins and particularly at the apex yellowish, and has a black median spot and a submarginal row of black spots, which are...
