Observation date: August 16, 2017
Date notes: Egg was collected on Pithecelobium dulce and reared to adult.
Submitted by: Steve Rogers
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: I have seen a couple of large orange sulfurs in my backyard in Anaheim. It is close to the Santa Ana Riverbed. Many eggs laid on a Pithecelobium dulce plant in the backyard. Glad to learn from other posts on this site that Caliandra is also a hostplant. The ones I raise are always tiny adults. I've tried offering other potential hostplants like Pithecelobium pallens, and Lysiloma ( feather tree) but both were not touched. I have two hypotheses about why the ones I raise are so tiny. 1. Perhaps a female large orange has been hybridized with a male cloudless sulfur. This might explain why the caterpillars after a while stop eating the Pithecellobium hostplant on which they were laid resulting in small "large" orange sulphurs. They also are kind of a yellowish-orange ( and they are males) instead of a solid brilliant orange like the two adults that flew into my yard which I did not raise. A second theory is that this butterfly feeds on actively fast growing host plant exclusively. I've seen how long the fresh stems of Pithecelobium dulce can be in Guadalajara Mexico. Perhaps the growth of the host plant here in southern CA when the nights are cool is not so robust and so the caterpillar slows down its feeding as well. When I raised these I fed the fresh red growth ( which turned the caterpillars a reddish brown) yet the new growth cuttings would wilt somewhat even when kept humid. I would like to hear about others experiments in raising these.
Steve Rogers
Status: Temporary Colonist
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: January 13, 2018
Coordinator notes: The photo is not adequate to make an ID but the information you shared satisfies me. I spent two days last September collecting Phoebis agarithe (Tuscon, AZ and San Clemente, CA) and managed 3 at each locality. It is very interesting how such a rare stray have become established now in much of southern California. Apparently based on input from Kilian Roever, yours would be subspecies fisheri-Ken Davenport
