''Archonias'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus of butterflies in the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

. ''Archonias brassolis'', the cattleheart white, is its sole species. It is found from

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, south through most of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 56–65 mm for ''A. b. rubrosparsa'' and 31–34 mm for ''A. b. approximata''. Adults of ''A. b. approximata'' have been recorded feeding on the nectar of ''

Eupatorium ''Eupatorium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, containing from 36 to 60 species depending on the classification system. Most are Herbaceous plant, herbaceous perennial plant, perennials growing to tall. A few are shrubs ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''A. b. approximata'' (Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama) *''A. b. brassolis'' (Surinam, Guianas) *''A. b. critias'' (Venezuela, Colombia) *''A. b. cutila'' (Ecuador) *''A. b. marcias'' (Brazil) *''A. b. negrina'' (Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru) *''A. b. nigripennis'' (Colombia) *''A. b. rosacea'' (Ecuador, Venezuela) *''A. b. rubrosparsa'' (Ecuador) *''A. b. tereas'' (Brazil) There is also one undescribed subspecies from Colombia.

External links

Species page at the Tree of Life
Pierini Lepidoptera of Brazil Pieridae of South America Monotypic butterfly genera Taxa named by Jacob Hübner Pieridae genera Taxa described in 1825 {{Pieridae-stub