Common Grass Yellow Butterfly

Flutter around, dance around.

Common Grass Yellow butterflies are commonly know as ‘Common Grass Yellows’ and are also known as ‘Large Grass Yellows’ or ‘Grass Yellows’.
Common Grass Yellow butterflies are small to medium butterflies that are found in Africa, Asia, South Pacific islands and Australia.
Common Grass Yellow butterflies are from the family ‘Pieridae’, a family that has mainly white, yellow and orange butterflies, sometimes with black spots.
Common Grass Yellow butterflies are bright lemon yellow in colour, and have black markings at the tips and borders of the butterfly’s wings and a narrow black band on the hind wing, and the underside of the wings are paler yellow with brown speckles.
Common Grass Yellow butterflies lay tiny white eggs that hatch, and become green caterpillars that grow to 24 – 30 mm (0.95 – 1.2 inches) in length, and then become smooth green pupae.

The scientific name of the Common Grass Yellow butterfly is ‘Eurema hecabe’, and they have a wingspan of 35 to 45 mm (1.4 to 1.8 inches).
Common Grass Yellow butterflies like to fly quickly, close to the ground, are found in open grassy or bushy terrain, hence their name.
Common Grass Yellow butterfly larvae feed on a variety of plants, depending on the region, although they often include plants from Euphorbiaceae, the family of spurges, and Fabaceae, the family of legumes, peas and beans.
Common Grass Yellow butterflies have different colouration in their wings depending on the season, known as ‘seasonal polyphenism’, resulting in generally darker wing colours in summer.
Common Grass Yellow male butterflies are often seen in large groups, and the females usually fly about by themselves to find nectar from a wide variety of plants.