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Eucchloe ausonia - Eastern Dappled White

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JTh

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Eucchloe ausonia - Eastern Dappled White
« on: April 13, 2015, 02:20:41 PM »
I have never seen this butterfly before, it is quite small, green with yellow speckles and fairly large, white spots.


P4100116 Euchloe ausonia Eastern Dappled White.jpg by JorunT, on Flickr
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Retired veterinary surgeon by training with a PhD in parasitology,  but worked as a virologist since 1992.
Member of the MGS  since 2004. Gardening in Oslo and to a limited extent in Halkidiki, Greece.
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MikeHardman

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Re: Eucchloe ausonia - Eastern Dappled White
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2015, 10:08:12 PM »
Jorun,

We get that and other related species in Cyprus. They are just a bit more interesting than your average white butterfly.
Not least because of the optical illusion...

Green is a colour made by butterflies and moths, but:
- some of the green pigments fade quickly to a straw colour (especially with emerald and bollworm moths)
- the most stable greens are achieved not by pigment but by interference/refraction/diffraction
- the apparent green in bath whites and orange tips (as shown in your photo) is actually a mixture of yellow and black pigmented scales - giving a green effect (at least to our eyes) without resorting to structural optics and without fading

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Mike
Geologist by Uni training, IT consultant, Referee for Viola for Botanical Society of the British Isles, commissioned author and photographer on Viola for RHS (Enc. of Perennials, The Garden, The Plantsman).
I garden near Polis, Cyprus, 100m alt., on marl, but have gardened mainly in S.England
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JTh

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Re: Eucchloe ausonia - Eastern Dappled White
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2015, 06:25:21 AM »
Thank you, Mike, interesting information. The butterfly was nice, but not extremely exciting, something I had never seen  before
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Retired veterinary surgeon by training with a PhD in parasitology,  but worked as a virologist since 1992.
Member of the MGS  since 2004. Gardening in Oslo and to a limited extent in Halkidiki, Greece.
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