The Sleepy Orange is a North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 in the family Pieridae

Pieridae

The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing approximately 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and Asia. Most pierid butterflies are white, yellow or orange in coloration, often with black spots...

.

Description

For a key to the terms used, see Lepidopteran glossary

Glossary of Lepidopteran terms

This glossary describes the terms used in the formal descriptions of insect species, jargon used mostly by professionals or entomologist....

The Sleepy Orange is a bright orange butterfly with the upper side of the wing

Wing

A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...

s having wide black borders. The forewing

Glossary of Lepidopteran terms

This glossary describes the terms used in the formal descriptions of insect species, jargon used mostly by professionals or entomologist....

 coastal margin

Glossary of Lepidopteran terms

This glossary describes the terms used in the formal descriptions of insect species, jargon used mostly by professionals or entomologist....

 has a small, narrow black spot. Some people think that the Sleepy Orange got its name from the black spot that looks like a closed eye; others say that the Sleepy Orange is a misnomer because, when disturbed, the butterfly has a very rapid flight. The underside of the wings varies seasonally: summer forms are bright yellow with brick red markings, while winter forms are browner and more heavily marked. It has a wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 of 1 3/8 - 2 1/4 inches.

Habitat

The Sleepy Orange may be found in or around old fields, roadsides, woods edges, swamps, wet meadows, open woodlands, margins of ponds, waterways, and valleys.

Life cycle

The eggs

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

 are pale greenish-yellow and turn red just before hatching. They are laid on the underside of the host plant leaves, or sometimes on flowers. The larva

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

 is fuzzy and grayish-green, with a whitish-yellow side stripe. The chrysalis varies from green to brownish black. Adult Sleepy Oranges migrate south to spend the winter. They have 2-4 broods

Offspring

In biology, offspring is the product of reproduction, of a new organism produced by one or more parents.Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way...

 per year.

Host Plants

Here are a list of host plants for the Sleepy Orange:

• Partridge Pea, Chamaecrista fascicalata
• Wild Sensitive Plant, Chamaecrista nictitens
• Senna bebecarpa
• Privet Senna, Senna ligustrina
• Senna marilandica
  Senna marilandica
  Senna marilandica, or Maryland Wild Senna, is a flowering plant in the United States....
  
  
• Senna mexicana
• Senna obtusifolia
  Senna obtusifolia
  Senna obtusifolia is a legume in the genus Senna, sometimes separated in the monotypic genus Diallobus. It grows wild in North, Central, and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, and is considered a particularly serious weed in many places...
  
  

Similar Species

• Colias eurytheme - Orange Sulphur
• Eurema proterpia
  Eurema proterpia
  The Tailed Orange is a North and South American butterfly in the family Pieridae.-Description:The upper side of the wings is orange with a variable amount of black along the fore wing costa. The wing veins are lightly marked with black in summer individuals, and winter individuals have no black...
  
  - Tailed Orange