The Pieridae are a large
family of
butterflies with about 76
genera containing about 1,100
species, mostly from
tropical Africa and
tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.[1] 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.[2] 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.[2]
The sexes usually differ, often in the pattern or number of the black markings.
Males of many species exhibit gregarious
mud-puddling behavior when they may imbibe salts from moist soils.[1]
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, and the
tarsal claws are
bifid, unlike in the
Papilionidae.[3]
Like the Papilionidae, the Pieridae also have their
pupae held at an angle by a silk girdle, but running at the first abdominal segment, unlike the
thoracic 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.[4]
Subfamilies
The Pieridae are generally divided into these four
subfamilies:
Coliadinae (14 genera), sulphurs or yellows; many of these species are
sexually dimorphic. Some, such as Colias, have wing patterns that are visible only under ultraviolet.[1]
Pseudopontiinae 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 study of Braby et al. (2005),[5] sister group relationships among Pieridae subfamilies are ((Dismorphiinae + Pseudopontiinae) + (Coliadinae + Pierinae)).
^Borror, D. J.; Triplehorn, C. A. & Johnson, N. F. (1989). An Introduction to the Study of Insects (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishers.
ISBN0-03-025397-7
^Braby, M. F. (2005). "Provisional checklist of genera of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)". Zootaxa. 832: 1–16.
doi:
10.11646/zootaxa.832.1.1.
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.