The Pieridae are a large

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, mostly from

tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the trop ...

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 ...

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 John Swainson 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 (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e ( caterpillars) of a few of these species, such as '' Pieris brassicae'' and ''

Pieris rapae ''Pieris rapae'' is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is known in Europe as the small white, in North America as the cabbage white or cabbage butterfly, on several continents as the small c ...

'', 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, or mustard plants. Crops from this genus are sometimes called ''cole c ...

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

mud-puddling Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck ...

behavior when they may imbibe salts from moist soils.

Classification

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 have a red ...

, and the tarsal claws are bifid, unlike in the Papilionidae. Like the Papilionidae, the Pieridae also have their

pupae A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''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 ...

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

thoracic The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, 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 divisions of the crea ...

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: * 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 bioge ...

; this group includes several mimetic species. The host plants are in the family Fabaceae. * Pierinae (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) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

Santalaceae The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants (including small trees, shrubs, perennial herbs, and epiphytic climbersHewson & George t al.br>''Santalaceae'' taxonomy, 1984, pp. 191-194.) which, like other mem ...

, and Loranthaceae. * Coliadinae (14 genera), sulphurs or yellows; many of these species are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. 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 ''Pseudopontia paradoxa'' is a species of butterfly found only in wet forests of tropical Africa. It was traditionally thought to be the only species (monotypic) in the genus '' Pseudopontia'' and the subfamily Pseudopontiinae. However, a recent ...

'', is endemic to West Africa. According to the molecular phylogenetic study of Braby et al. (2005), sister group relationships among Pieridae subfamilies are ((Dismorphiinae + Pseudopontiinae) + (Coliadinae + Pierinae)).

Some popular species

Dark Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) Im IMG 6792

* 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'' Common grass jewel Im IMG 7022

Some pest species

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

* '' Colias philodice clouded sulphur * ''

'', small white or cabbage white * '' Pieris brassicae'', large white or cabbage white

References

External links

TOL

GloBIS Database
Includes type images

In Japanese but binomial names 3 pages of images. Tip Next page.
Holarctic Pieridae

"Family Pieridae"
''Insecta.pro''.

on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
BHL
Bridges ''Catalogue of the Papilionidae and Pieridae''.

{{Authority control Butterfly families Taxa named by William John Swainson Papilionoidea