CLEOPATRA
This beauty is a medium-sized butterfly, with a wingspan of 50 to 70mm. This is a sexual dimorphic species, which is a posh way of saying that the male and female do not look the same. The female has pale yellow or greenish wings, whereas the male is darker yellow with an orange patch on the forewing. Both sexes have a brown dot in the centre of each wing and the undersides of their wings is a light, yellowish green. The cleopatra is very similar to the brimstone butterfly in shape and colour, but the cleopatra is larger and the male has the orange patch. This patch is only seen in flight and so they can easily be confused with the brimstone when at rest.
Cleopatra butterflies emerge from hibernation in early Spring. They feast on the first colourful blooms of flowers in woodlands, scrubland and my garden. Here on Kefalonia we have 2 broods, 1 in February to April after hibernation and another from mid-May to August. They can be seen flying for most of the year, with the green caterpillars feeding on various buckthorns. When the caterpillars are ready to pass to the pupal stage, they tie themselves to the underside of a leaf with a silk belt. The green chrysalis changes slowly to yellow and then to red.
