The clouded yellows is one of the most-widespread butterflies in Europe. Their breeding range is North Africa and southern Europe and eastwards through Turkey into the Middle East. It occurs throughout much of Europe as a summer migrant, in good years individuals reaching Scandinavia. In the UK they can be seen on the south coast almost every year in varying numbers.
In the early days of English entomology, the male of this beautiful butterfly was known as the saffron butterfly, and the female was called the spotted saffron. The name clouded yellow was given to it in the 18th century and may well have been derived from the expression ‘cloud of yellows’, as the butterfly migrates to Britain in swarms, and has often been reported as seen migrating across the English Channel as a cloud of yellow over the sea.