Catopsilia pomona

Catopsilia pomona
Male
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Catopsilia
Species:	C. pomona
Binomial name
Catopsilia pomona Fabricius, 1775
Synonyms
Catopsila crocale

Catopsila crocale

Catopsilia pomona, the common emigrant or lemon emigrant, is a medium-sized pierid butterfly found in Asia and parts of Australia. The species gets its name from its habit of migration. Some early authors considered them as two distinct species Catopsilia crocale and Catopsilia pomona.

The species has pale and dark morphs in Australia. The form crocale has the antennae black and the form pomona has the antennae pinkish or red. The development of these forms has been linked to photoperiod and temperature during growth.

Quoted from Bingham, C. T. (1907) Fauna of British India, Butterflies. Volume II.

"The upperside of the male is chalky-white, sometimes with a more or less broad and clearly defined basal sulphur-yellow area on both fore and hind wings; this sulphur-yellow colour is at times diffused over the whole surface of the wings, though generally it becomes paler towards the terminal margins. For the fore wing, the whole, or sometimes only the apical half, of the costa narrowly black, this color widened out irregularly at the apex; termen widely black at the apex, the colour narrowed posteriorly. This border in some specimens almost reaches the tornus, in others terminates above vein 4; occasionally it is continued posteriorly by a series of block dots at the apices of the veins. Hind wing: generally uniform, unmarked, some specimens bear minute black dots at the apices of the veins.

"On the underside the groundcolour is very variable, with white with a slight to strong ochraceous tinge, greenish white or sulphur-yellow. The fore wing is typically without markings, in some specimens with a patch of sulphur-yellow on either side of base of median nervure, in the very yellow examples the tornal area is often widely greenish white, in others (Catopsilia catilla, Cramer) it bears a spot variable in size on the discocellulars. This spot has a pearly centre and an outer reddish line. Many specimens have an irregular angulated narrow discal reddish line (the colour varies in intensity) that runs from the costa obliquely outwards to vein 7, and then obliquely inwards to vein 2, though this line is often absent in specimens that bear the discocellular spot; apex and termen sometimes very narrowly reddish. The hind wing is typically uniform, without markings; in var. catilla there is a single small spot at the end of the cell similar to that on the fore wing, sometimes this spot is much larger with a narrow outer reddish ring, sometimes it is accompanied by a similar spot at base of interspace 5; when two spots are present they may be entirely separate, or their outer rings may coalesce; again, some specimens have a highly irregular discal reddish line (often reduced to a series of minute spots) that extends from the costa to vein 1; finally, the majority of specimens have a series of minute red terminal dots at the apices of the veins."

...
Wikipedia