''Euchloe olympia'', the Olympia marble, is a

butterfly 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 ...

in the

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 ...

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 ...

. Its range is southern Canada and the Midwest, down into the southwestern United States. ''E. olympia'' is related to ''E. guaymasensis'', but has a distinctive phenotype and genotype. Back, W., Miller, M. A., & Opler, P. A. (2011). Genetic, phenetic, and distributional relationships of nearctic Euchloe (Pieridae, Pierinae, Anthocharidini). The Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society, 65(1), 1-14.

Nectar source

''Euchloe olympia'' has been observed to use ''

Lepidium virginicum ''Lepidium virginicum'', also known as least pepperwort or Virginia pepperweed, is an herbaceous plant in the Mustard plant, mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to much of North America, including most of the United States and Mexico and ...

'' as its main nectar source as a larval and as an adult the main nectar source was found to be ''

Nuttallanthus canadensis ''Nuttallanthus canadensis'', the blue toadflax, Canada toadflax, or old-field toadflax, is a species of '' Nuttallanthus'' in the family Plantaginaceae, native to eastern North America from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south to Texas and Flor ...

''. Based on a study done in a central Illinois sand prairie, ''Echloe olympia'' was observed to show consistency on the flowers it visits to obtain its nectar from.

Conservation status

The Olympia marble has been classified globally as G5/G4, meaning that globally it is a relatively stable species. The United States has not placed it under any watch as a country. However, it is in danger due to gypsy moth chemical control.

References

Euchloe Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1871 Taxa named by William Henry Edwards Lepidoptera of the United States Lepidoptera of Canada {{Pieridae-stub