Jay,

The only large yellow solid-colored (more or less) butterflies I see here are Sulphurs, and I see several kinds of sulphurs. That might be what you're seeing.

I'm sure Susan will know what you're seeing!

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Sulphur butterfly

Dawn these are at least a 1/3 smaller than a Monarch. I couldn't tell the size of the one in the picture real well. And a light yellow. The part that has caught everyone's attention is the number of them. There is just thousands and although you might see a stray every now and then usually they will be in droves. Jay

Hi, Jay, Dawn is correct about it being one of the Sulphur butterflies. We have many species of Sulphurs that populate Kansas and Oklahoma every year. Some years the population is heavy, like what you're seeing now.

In all likelihood the species you are seeing (without having a photo to look at), is the Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice. That would be my first guess, and the second would be the Orange Sulphur. You rarely see the uppersides of these butterflies as they perch with their wings closed. So, you might not notice the "orange" coloration in the Orange Sulphur, or the dark edges of the Clouded Sulphur.

All Sulphurs use larval host plants in the Legume family, Alfalfa being one of these. In fact, the Clouded and Orange Sulphurs are sometimes referred to as the "Alfalfa Butterfly". I would imaging the farmer's are not too happy about seeing large numbers of them in their fields, eating their Alfalfa crops, because they can be considered pests of Alfalfa.

I bet that is quite a sight to see, all those butterflies in the fields. Wow! I'd love to see it.

Susan

Susan,

I'd like to see all those in the fields too. When I say I see a lot of them, I mean maybe a dozen or two on any given day or at any given time. lol I can't imagine seeing thousands of them at once!

We are having tons of various butterflies right now as the fields are full of fall-blooming wildflowers, especially goldenrod, liatris, fall asters and some sort of yellow daisy-type flower similar to greenthread daisy. I haven't ventured into the tall grasses (full of snakes) to see which yellow daisy-type flower is blooming, but since 13" of rain have fallen here in Sept. we are seeing some rebloom of various summer wildflowers as well as the usual fall ones.

The monarchs should be happy if they make it this far(without veering west and missing us) because there's lots of flowers and fields full of milkweed.

Dawn

I would love for everyone I know to be able to see the Monarchs migrating, and fields of butterflies for that matter, too. It is quite amazing, I'm sure. I have quite a few in the garden right now. Monarchs, Cloudless Sulphur, Bordered Patches, Texan Crescents, tons of Gray Hairstreaks, skippers, tiny little day flying moths that I only see when my asters are blooming. It's great weather for them to fly all day long right now. When it was hot, they tended to hide in the trees and shrubs during the heat of the day....but then I was hiding out in the house then, too, LOL!

I think my hummers have left. Haven't seen one for about 3 days now. Sad signs of summer's waning......

So, I will be devoting time to figuring out what to include in next year's garden, including some kind of spring blooming shrub or vine or flowers to attract the hummers and butterflies in early spring.

Susan

It's been a great butterfly year. I've raised about 40 Black Swallowtails and 4 Monarchs. The Monarchs arrived in my area in July and I managed to attract them with the butterfly weed I planted. I still have a few and there are still larva on the butterfly weed.

Yesterday when I came from work, this is what I found in my butterfly garden: 2 Gulf Frits, 1 large female Monarch, 1 red admiral, 2 painted ladies, and countless skippers and hairstreaks. It was beautiful. I still have hummers though their numbers are dwindling. One was feeding in the garden with the butteflies yesterday. I got some excellent photographs to add to my collection.

I've been kind of absent on the forum since school started.

~Laura

Susan these butterflies seem to always be flying. As a coworker said they appear to be solid yellow. I've seen them in the garden fairly close and haven't seen another color. Saw a few tonight. I did a search on the sulphurs and read where they migrate but very slowly. And found several articles from KS and surrounding states about there being so many this year in many areas and how it is so uncommon. A few by the extension service. And they said there is many kinds of sulphurs. They are pretty and quite a site when there are so many. When the droves come through the air is full of them. They seem to hover 1-2 feet above ground and around the plants whether in the garden or the fields. My garden and flower beds a few times had a yellow cloud hanging around them. Looks like a low hanging yellow fog. They seemed to prefer the okra and pepper plants over the tomatoes. I did make more of a comparison tonight. These are what I would call small. 1-1 1/2" wide probably. Not near as big as a Monarch. I did find mention of a sulphur that small. And found a picture of a solid yellow one that is a dead ringer for what we are seeing but the picture didn't have a name listed as to what kind it was. And haven't seen as many of the big droves in the last 3-4 days so think they must of migrated on. Jay

Butterflies have a tendency to congregate where their host plants are, even if not laying eggs. That's why I gave an ID of the Clouded and Orange. Based on the size alone, I would strongly suggest they are Clouded Sulphurs which are smaller than the Orange, though they range in size from 1 1/2" to 2 1/2". Less likely would be Little Yellows, which range from 1" to 1 1/2". However, Alfalfa is generally not a host plant for them, but all Sulphurs use plants in the Legume family, of Fabaceae and that includes Alfalfa.

Without a photo it is difficult at best to ID something that is a "yellow butterfly" because there are several yellow species. I'm just trying to narrow down according to range, size, food plant, etc., and combine those to ID a butterfly based on your description. I excluded the Little Yellow because its larval host plants are Cassias or Sennas, while the LFP for Clouded and Orange is Alfalfa or Medicago sativa, Clovers (Trifolium species), and Peas (Pisum species). Of course, there are probably a lot of native wildflowers blooming around them as well, such as fall blooming wild Asters, Goldenrods, wild native Sunflowers, such as Helianthus species, and Heleniums.

I still long to be there and see them! You're a lucky guy, Jay!

Laura, congratulations on your butterflies! What kind of milkweed do you grow? I may have some seed to share with you next year of a hard to find tropical milkweed called Giant Milkweed. It is a gorgeous plant and I love it for its substantial foliage that will feed a lot of hungry Monarchs. The foliage shape and habit reminds of the fiddle leaf fig plant. The leaves get very large and have a kind of greyish green color to them. New foliage is grey because it is covered with white hairs. Love this plant!

I did notice you posted a few times on the Butterfly Forum and was so glad to see another Okie on the forum, so please come back, and please share your beautiful images with us.

Oh, another thing, Jay, is that we've had a lot of prevailing wind from the east and that has pushed a lot of butterflies to the Western parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.

Still envious,

Susan

Hey Susan - sorry for the late response. Let's see... I planted two varieties this year - Butterfly weed that is orange and yellow (picked it up at the Jenks Plant Festival in the spring) and I also planted Tropical Milkweed - got it at another festival from the Wild Things Nursery. The tropical milkweed did not survive - thinking I may have planted too early OR the heavy spring rains did it in. It basically never grew, turned yellow, and then died.

The butterfly weed did incredibly well though - two small plants grew to cover about a 10 foot wide area and grew as tall as my 6 foot privacy fence. I was very impressed! I saved some seeds from it as well, and figure I'd try them in the spring *but I am going to buy plants also because I'm going to expand the garden so want more. I understand I need to store the seeds in the refrigerator/freezer for several weeks, right? I'd love to try another variety of the milkweed! I'm also interested in expanding the type of host plants I have - right now I only have the milkweed for the Monarchs and the parsley/dill/fennel for the EBST.

I have most of my favorite photos on my facebook page - haven't found a way to get them to show up here. I took thousands of pictures this spring and summer and captured several species of butterflies.

It was a GREAT butterfly year for me!

This year haven't seen many live Monarchs yet--did see a dead one in the garden. Have seen a few live Sulfurs--large ones. But the garden has been full of Black Swallowtails all summer although I haven't seen many cats of them until recently. Went out a few weeks back and the parsnips were covered in cats. I left them even tho I don't plant the parsnips for them. Then yesterday walked by the parsley and saw almost a dozen more. I left them too because I do plant the parsley for them.

Mulberryknob - I didn't have as many Black Swallowtails this year because I ran out of food for them early on. Need to plant more fennel next year. So, you're lucky you got to see so many. You have a lot of food for them, it appears, and I always see more butterflies if I have their larval host plants available in the garden.

Don't know why your Tropical Milkweed didn't survive for you, Laura, but we did have a cooler than normal spring, and they do love heat. I started some of mine indoors in late March, and then sowed some direct in May. The best place for seed is from Everwilde Farms online. They give you 1,250 seeds for $2.50, or they did last year. Most places only give you about 40 seeds for that amount.

Your Butterfly Weed, or Asclepias tuberosa, does require at least 30 days of stratification (cold) to break dormancy. I winter sowed mine, but you can also put seed, 1/4 c. sand, and 1 tsp, water in a baggy; put in fridge for 30 days, remove and plant them.

Wild Things Nursery is a great place to get larval host plants. I also got my Senna hebecarpa from Marilyn, which is the host plant for Sleepy Orange and Cloudless Sulphurs, and my False Nettle, host plant for the Red Admirals. She also has Spicebush for the Spicebush Swallowtails, and Pipevine for the Pipevine Swallowtails that you might want to try as well.

If you live in a rural area, you may have Sassafras trees around you as well as Willow trees. Sassafras is a larval host for the Spicebush Swallowtail also, and the Willow is a host to the Viceroy and Red Spotted Purple. Wild Cherry is also a host for the Red Spotted Purple and Tiger Swallowtails. All of these are native trees to Oklahoma.

Susan

Is this a Sulphur butterfly? I have had two just going wild over my sugar peas.

Larry

{{gwi:1132223}}

I hope I have resized properly also.

Yep! It looks like a Cloudless Sulphur. I've been seeing them daily in my garden, too. Aren't they pretty?

They like legumes! I've been seeing them on my Dwarf Red Porterweed mostly. They're pretty big butterflies.

Susan