Wild Guide: Falcate Orangetip

Falcate Orangetip

Anthocharis midea

Status

Resident species

Size

Wingspan: 1-1 ½ inches

Distribution

Nearly statewide

Falcate orangetip males are unmistakable with their small size, white coloration, and orange wingtips. The size of the orange wing patch can vary greatly. Both sexes have hooked — falcate — forewings with black spots along the wing margins and in the center of the forewings. A maze of narrow green marbling covers the ventral hindwing and forewing tip. The flight, while not rapid, can be quite erratic.

Larvae are bluish-green with an orange stripe down the middle of the back and a white stripe running along each side. 

Foods

Caterpillars feed at night, eating flowers, developing fruits, and young leaves of native plants in the mustard family, including rock cresses, bitter cresses, shepherd's purse, and toothwort. Adult falcate orangetips visit spring wildflowers — usually small, low-growing varieties such as toothwort and other mustards, violets, and spring beauty.

Life Cycle

Females lay eggs singly onto a suitable food plant. A single caterpillar will eat all the flowering parts on a plant, even cannibalizing smaller caterpillars competing for the same food source. Females normally do not deposit more than one egg on a flower cluster. This species overwinters as a chrysalis and emerges in spring as an adult butterfly.

Ecosystem Connections

After a long winter, people love to see the first signs of spring. One of these signs is the April appearance of male falcate orangetips as they patrol Ozark hilltops amid spring wildflowers and greening grasses.

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