The flying lemon

The large, yellow-green common brimstone butterfly is one of the first species that emerges in the spring. These are the adult butterflies from last season that have overwintered and now get going with producing the next generation. When the sun finally starts to shine in earnest in March, you can see them flying back and forth in clearings, or along the forest roads. You can find its black-spotted, light-green caterpillars in the summer, perhaps on the leaves of its favourite tree – the alder buckthorn.

When a brimstone butterfly has settled on a flower to suck nectar, it’s usually quite easy to get up close to it. Then you can, for example, check if it is a male (totally lemon-yellow colour) or a female (more greenish). For a butterfly, it has quite a large head with a brown crown. If you want to find the butterfly’s eggs, you’ll need to look carefully, but they are worth looking for. They are green and look like small bottles.