
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 ...
of
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
''Gonepteryx rhamni'', commonly named the common brimstone, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It lives throughout the Palearctic zone and is commonly found across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Across much of its range, it is the only spe ...
'', 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
''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 ca ...
'', 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
Bifid refers to something that is split or cleft into two parts. It may refer to:
* Bifid, a variation in the P wave, R wave, or T wave in an echocardiogram in which a wave which usually has a single peak instead has two separate peaks
* 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
''Eucheira socialis'', commonly known as the madrone butterfly is a lepidopteran that belongs to the family Pieridae. It was first described by John O. Westwood in 1834. Locally known as ''Mariposa del madroño'' or ''tzauhquiocuilin'', it is e ...
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
Dismorphiinae, the mimic sulphurs, is a subfamily of butterflies from the family Pieridae. It consists of about 100 species in seven genera, distributed mainly in the Neotropic, Neotropical region, of which only one species occurs in North America ...
(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 ...](_blank)
.
*
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
''Pseudopontia'' is a genus of butterflies found only in wet forests of tropical Africa. It is the only genus in the subfamily Pseudopontiinae. It was traditionally thought to contain only one species (monotypic), '' Pseudopontia paradoxa''. Howe ...
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'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Pieridae. They are often called clouded yellows in the Palearctic and sulphurs (a name also used for other coliadine genera) in North America. The closest living relative is the genus ''Zerene' ...
, ''Colias croceus''
*
Orange tip, ''Anthocharis cardamines''
*
Psyche butterfly
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" ( ψυχή).
Psyche or La Psyché may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unc ...
, ''Leptosia nina''
Some pest species
* ''
Colias eurytheme
''Colias eurytheme'', the orange sulphur, also known as the alfalfa butterfly and in its larval stage as the alfalfa caterpillar, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae, where it belongs to the lowland group of " clouded yellows and sulphurs" sub ...
'', alfalfa butterfly or orange sulphur

* ''
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
''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 ca ...
'', small white or cabbage white
* ''
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 ...
'', large white or cabbage white
References
Further reading
* Braby, M. F. 2005. Provisional checklist of genera of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). ''Zootaxa'' 832: 1–16.
* Braby, M., R. Vila, and N. E. Pierce. 2006. Molecular phylogeny and systematics of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: higher classification and biogeography. ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' 147(2): 239-275.
* Carter, David. 2000. Butterflies and Moths (2/ed). Dorling Kindersley, London. .
* A New Subspecies of Eurema andersoni (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) from South India, O YATA, H GAONKAR - Entomological science, 1999 - ci.nii.ac.jp
* Glassberg, Jeffrey ''Butterflies through Binoculars, The West'' (2001)
* James, David G. and Nunnallee, David ''Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies'' (2011)
*
Pyle, Robert Michael ''The Butterflies of Cascadia'' (2002)
External links
TOLGloBIS DatabaseIncludes 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 ...
s 3 pages of images. Tip Next page.
Holarctic Pieridae"Family Pieridae" ''Insecta.pro''.
on the
UF /
IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
BHLBridges ''Catalogue of the Papilionidae and Pieridae''.
{{Authority control
Butterfly families
Taxa named by William Swainson
Papilionoidea
Taxa described in 1820