Sleepy Orange

The sleepy orange is a bright orange butterfly with the upperside of the wings having wide black borders. The forewing costal margin has a small, narrow black marking that resembles a closed eye. Contrary to popular belief, its name originates from this wing patterning, rather than its behavior; the butterfly has a very rapid flight pattern when disturbed. 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 of 13⁄8–21⁄4 inches (35–50 mm).

The sleepy orange generally prefers low elevation areas, agricultural land, and disturbed sites, and may be found in or around old fields, roadsides, woods edges, swamps, wet meadows, open woodlands, margins of ponds, waterways, and valleys.

Its eggs are spindle-shaped and white in color when first laid, but quickly turn yellow. The larva is pale green with a narrow white stripe along its length on either side and very short hairs. The chrysalis varies from pale green to brown-black later in its life cycle. They have two to four broods per year.

Eggs. Females will occasionally lay eggs on Phyllanthus tenellus (Euphorbiaceae) which is a plant whose leaf is morphologically similar to E. nicippe's host plant of Chamaecrista fasciculata. Eggs deposited on P. tenellus are capable of hatching but larvae cannot develop on it.

Larvae. Larvae are pale green with a narrow white lateral stripe running along each side of the body and are covered with short hairs. E. nicippe larvae are found to consume exclusively foliage compared to other members of Pieridae.

Pupae. The chrysalis ranges from pale green early in development to a darker brown-black or solid black coloration later in the life cycle which provides camouflage across the different substrates where pupation occurs. Controlled cross-breeding experiments have demonstrated that pupal coloration is independent of adult wing pattern or seasonal morph, with morphologically identical adult butterflies emerging from both solid green and solid black pupae.

Adults. Adults exhibit pronounced seasonal dimorphism. …