Small Grass-yellow Butterfly
'Winter' Form
Ellura
Small Grass-yellow Butterfly
Veins
 
                      
Small Grass-yellow Butterfly (Eurema smilax)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera)
Family: White & Yellow Butterfly (Papilionoidea: Pieridae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Small Grass-yellow Butterfly (Eurema smilax)
This Photo:     'Summer' Form

Thank you Prof Victor W Fazio III† for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~12mm long and ~30mm wingspan.
Small, common, yellow butterfly. The brown markings are not easily visible. Very bright yellow when flying.
There are pale & bright summer forms along with browner & richer winter forms. The colour variation shows up on the underwings. The top of the head can also be pale brown to black.
Surprisingly they can still fly while and mating. Shown here are 2 photo's where they even swap positions (ie which is on top holding & which is hanging). One assumes the female is the larger of the two.
They are difficult to differentiate the genders.

Copyright © 2014-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 11-Dec-2014
This species is classed as M (Migrant) on the South Australian Butterflies & Moths website