''Pontia'' is a genus of
pierid butterflies. They are found in the
Holarctic, but are rare in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and central to eastern
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, and a few species range into the
Afrotropics
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 ...
. Several East Asian species once placed here are now more often split off in ''
Sinopieris''. Like the closely related genus ''
Pieris'', they are commonly called whites.
Species
Listed alphabetically:
''Pontia''
funet.fi
* '' Pontia beckerii'' (Edwards, 1871) – Becker's white, Great Basin white, or sagebrush white
* ''Pontia callidice
''Pontia callidice'', the lofty Bath white or peak white, is a small butterfly of the yellows and whites family (Pieridae), which occurs in the Palearctic realm.
Description
Description from Charles Thomas Bingham's (1907) ''The Fauna of Briti ...
'' (Hübner, 1799-1800) – peak white
* ''Pontia chloridice
''Pontia chloridice'', the lesser Bath white, is a small butterfly of the family Pieridae, that is, the yellows and whites. The species is found in steppe zone of Ukraine, Moldova and Russia; east to Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Korea; south to Balka ...
'' (Hübner, 1808-1813) – small Bath white
* ''Pontia daplidice
''Pontia daplidice'', the Bath white, is a small butterfly of the family Pieridae, the yellows and whites, which occurs in the Palearctic region. It is common in central and southern Europe, migrating northwards every summer, often reaching south ...
'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – Bath white
* '' Pontia distorta'' (Butler, 1886) – small meadow white
* '' Pontia edusa'' (Fabricius, 1777) - eastern Bath white
* '' Pontia glauconome'' (Klug, 1829) – desert (Bath) white
* '' Pontia helice'' (Linnaeus, 1764) – meadow white
* '' Pontia occidentalis'' (Reakirt, 1866) – western white
* '' Pontia protodice'' (Boisduval & Le Conte, 1830) – checkered white
* '' Pontia sisymbrii'' (Boisduval, 1852) – spring white, California white, or Colorado white
Some other species are occasionally placed here, but alternatively in other genera. ''Pontia extensa'' may belong in '' Pieris'', while a number of other species from the China region are often split off in '' Sinopieris'':
* ''Pontia davidis'' (Shaanxi
Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...
, Sichuan
Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
, Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
, Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
)
* ''Pontia dubernardi'' (Gansu
Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
, Nanshan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan)
* ''Pontia kozlovi'' (Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
)
* ''Pontia sherpae'' (Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
)
* ''Pontia stoetzneri'' (Sichuan, Yunnan)
* ''Pontia venata'' ( Ta-chien-lu, at altitude 3000 m)
References
External links
Images representing ''Pontia''
at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...
Eurobutterflies
Further reading
* Glassberg, Jeffrey ''Butterflies through Binoculars, The West'' (2001)
* Guppy, Crispin S. and Shepard, Jon H. ''Butterflies of British Columbia'' (2001)
* James, David G. and Nunnallee, David ''Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies'' (2011)
* Pelham, Jonathan ''Catalogue of the Butterflies of the United States and Canada'' (2008)
* Pyle, Robert Michael ''The Butterflies of Cascadia'' (2002)
External links
Butterflies and Moths of North America
Butterflies of America
Pierini
Pieridae genera
Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius
Taxa described in 1807
{{Pieridae-stub