Common Jezebel Delias eucharis edit by kadavoor

The Pieridae are a large

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

with about 76

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

containing about 1,100

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, mostly from

tropical Africa The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

and

tropical Asia Tropical Asia refers to the entirety of the areas in Asia with a tropical climate. These areas are of geographic and economic importance due to their natural resources and biodiversity, which include many species of agricultural value. There are 16 ...

with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.DeVries P. J. in Levin S.A. (ed) 2001 The Encyclopaedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press. Most pierid butterflies are white, yellow, or orange in coloration, often with black spots. The pigments that give the distinct coloring to these butterflies are derived from waste products in the body and are a characteristic of this family.Carter, David (2000). ''Butterflies and Moths''. The family was created by

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

in 1820. The name "butterfly" is believed to have originated from a member of this family, the brimstone, '' Gonepteryx rhamni'', which was called the "butter-coloured fly" by early British naturalists. The sexes usually differ, often in the pattern or number of the black markings. The

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e (

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s) of a few of these species, such as ''

Pieris brassicae ''Pieris brassicae'', the large white, also called cabbage butterfly, cabbage white, cabbage moth (erroneously), or in India the large cabbage white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is a close relative of the small white, ''Pieris rap ...

'' and '' Pieris rapae'', commonly seen in gardens, feed on

brassica ''Brassica'' () is a genus of plants in the cabbage and mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, mustard plants, or simply brassicas. Crops from this genus are sometim ...

s, and are notorious agricultural pests. Males of many species exhibit gregarious

mud-puddling Puddling is a behaviour in which an organism seeks out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud, and carrion, and sucks up the fluid. Where the conditions are suitable, conspicuous insects such as butterfly, butterf ...

behavior when they may imbibe salts from moist soils.

Morphology

The Pieridae have the radial vein on the forewing with three or four branches and rarely with five branches. The forelegs are well developed in both sexes, unlike in the

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

, and the tarsal claws are bifid, unlike in the

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful Butterfly, butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includ ...

. Like the Papilionidae, the Pieridae also have their

pupae A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

held at an angle by a silk girdle, but running at the first abdominal segment, unlike the

thoracic The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main ...

girdle seen in the Papilionidae. But some species such as the madrone butterfly that belong to this family do not shows the presence of this abdominal silk girdle.

Subfamilies

The Pieridae are generally divided into these four

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zool ...

: * Dismorphiinae (six genera), mostly

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

; this group includes several mimetic species. The host plants are in the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. *

Pierinae The Pierinae are a large subfamily of Pieridae, pierid butterfly, butterflies. The subfamily is one of several clades of butterflies often referred to as the whites. Species It includes the following species (additional species can be found und ...

(55 genera), whites, yellows, and orange-tips; many of these species are strongly migratory. Host plants are in the families Capparidaceae,

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...

Santalaceae The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants (including small trees, shrubs, perennial plants, perennial herbs, and epiphyte, epiphytic climbersHewson & George t al.'Santalaceae'' taxonomy, 1984, pp. 191-1 ...

, and

Loranthaceae Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are '' Nuytsia floribunda'' (the ...

. *

Coliadinae Coliadinae, the sulphurs or yellows, are a subfamily of butterflies with about 300 described species. There are 36 species in North America, where they range from Mexico to northern Canada. In most species, males are easily distinguished from ...

(14 genera), sulphurs or yellows; many of these species are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

. Some, such as ''Colias'', have wing patterns that are visible only under ultraviolet. * Pseudopontiinae includes only the genus '' Pseudopontia'', which was formerly considered monotypic. Its type species—formerly the sole species in this subfamily—'' Pseudopontia paradoxa'', is endemic to West Africa. According to the

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of Braby et al. (2005), sister group relationships among Pieridae subfamilies are ((Dismorphiinae + Pseudopontiinae) + (Coliadinae + Pierinae)).

Some common species

* Brimstone, ''Gonepteryx rhamni'' * California dogface, ''Zerene eurydice'' * Catalina orangetip, ''Anthocharis cethura catalina'' * Cloudless sulphur, ''Phoebis sennae'' * Clouded yellow, ''Colias croceus'' * Orange tip, ''Anthocharis cardamines'' * Psyche butterfly, ''Leptosia nina''

Some pest species

* '' Colias eurytheme'', alfalfa butterfly or orange sulphur Pieris brassicae - Large Cabbage White - 02

* ''

Colias philodice ''Colias philodice'', the common sulphur or clouded sulphur, is a North American butterfly in the family Pieridae, subfamily Coliadinae. Description This species is a typical member of the genus. Both genders typically have pale yellow wings a ...

'' clouded sulphur * '' Pieris rapae'', small white or cabbage white * ''

'', large white or cabbage white

References

External links

TOL

GloBIS Database
Includes type images

In Japanese but

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...