CreatureData

Lucerne butterfly

Colias electo (Linnaeus, 1763)

Status not recordedbutterflies and moths

The lucerne butterfly (Colias electo) is a species in the family Pieridae, order Lepidoptera.

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Quick facts about the lucerne butterfly

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
3.01 cm – 3.47 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
On the wing
January, April to May, July to August, November to December
Generations a year
Several
Larval food plants
Fabaceae family
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the lucerne butterfly?

LUCERNE BUTTERFLY · WINGSPAN 3.47 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 3.47 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the lucerne butterfly is about 2.0% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the lucerne butterfly live?

Not recorded

Is the lucerne butterfly endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the lucerne butterfly classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderLepidoptera
  5. familyPieridae
  6. genusColias
  7. SpeciesColias electo (Linnaeus, 1763)

Synonyms Papilio electo

Other names and names in other languages (2)
  • African clouded yellowEnglish
  • LusernvlinderAfrikaans

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the lucerne butterfly

Other species in the same genus Colias.

CompareLucerne butterfly vs Clouded yellow butterflyLucerne butterfly vs Pale cloudedyyellowLucerne butterfly vs Berger's clouded yellowLucerne butterfly vs Pale Arctic clouded yellow

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the lucerne butterfly?

An adult lucerne butterfly has a wingspan of 3.01 cm – 3.47 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the lucerne butterfly?

The lucerne butterfly (Colias electo) belongs to the family Pieridae in the order Lepidoptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Lucerne butterfly (Colias electo). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/lucerne-butterfly

MLA

“Lucerne butterfly (Colias electo).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/lucerne-butterfly.

BibTeX
@misc{lucerne_butterfly_2026,
  title = {Lucerne butterfly (Colias electo)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/lucerne-butterfly},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}