Introduction:

Pieridae are the sulphurs and whites, medium-sized mostly pale-colored butterflies with a world-wide distribution. There are some 1100 species.

Diversity description:

This family is composed of about 1051 species in 76 genera. The most speciose genera are: Colotis, Delias, Colias, Catasticta, Eurema and Belenois.

Pieridae are the sulphurs and whites, medium-sized mostly pale-colored butterflies with a world-wide distribution. There are some 1100 species.

Pieridae (White and Sulfur Butterflies)
These small- to medium-sized butterflies fall into two major subfamilies, which will be described. Pierinae (Whites): The White butterflies have white wings with black dots or bars. A few species, such as the Marbles and Orangetips, have greenish yellow or bright orange patterns on their wings. The larvae are predominantly green, and feed almost exclusively on members of the Mustard family. The green or brown pupae are slung from a stem with a silk girdle. Adult Whites often nectar at the flowers of members of the Mustard family. Coliadinae (Sulfurs): The Sulfur butterflies have yellow or orange-yellow wings, with black bars or dots. Their caterpillars are green, often with pale white or yellow lateral stripes. They feed on various legumes (Bean family). Some species do not successfully overwinter in central or northern Illinois, such as Colias cesonia (Dogface Sulfur), but migrate northward during the summer from areas in the southern United States. They are important visitors of some prairie wildflowers.

The name Pieridae is attributed to Duponchel, 1835, in the Official List of Family Names, but J. Pelham (pers. comm.) points out that Swainson employed the name for a family-level group some 15 years prior, and argues that priority should be observed.

Geographic Range:

Nearctic, Palearctic, Oriental, Ethiopian, Neotropical, Australian, Oceanic Island

Geographic Range description:

World-wide distribution, almost. New Zealand lacks native species.

Color:

Often white, yellow, orange or red.

Texture:

ridged

Orientation:

upright

Egg mass pattern:

Eggs are usually laid singly but also (in rare cases) laid in small groups (Scoble 1992).

Description of egg morphology:

Pierid eggs are spindle-shaped (Ackery et al 1999).  From Scoble 1992: "Eggs are upright and fusiform with vertical ridges and horizontal cross-ribs."

Secondary setae:

present

Larval body description:

Cylindrical larvae with no obvious protuberances (Ackery et al 1999).  "Larvae are covered with numerous short and fine secodary setae." (Scoble 1992) Many species are cryptic, usually green or brown, and patterned with longitudinal stripes (Ackery et al 1999). Other species are aposematic (Scoble 1992)

Larval abdomen description:

"Each abdomial segment is divided, typically into six annulets." (Scoble, 1992)

Crochet arrangement description:

"Crochets are arranged in a biordinal or triordinal mesoseries." (Scoble 1992)

Anal comb on A10:

present

Pupa description:

Pupae are girdled.

Epiphysis:

absent

Number of tibial spurs foreleg:

from 0

Number of tibial spurs midleg:

from 2

Number of tibial spurs hindleg:

from 2

Leg description:

Pretarsal claws are bifid.

Wing venation??description:

From Scoble, 1992:  "In the forewing, one or more branches of Rs may be absent. In the hindwing, the humeral vein may be present or absent and vein Sc+R1 diverges from Rs at the base."

Eyes:

smooth

Labial palpus:

porrect, upcurved

Maxillary palpus:

present, absent

Number of maxillary palp segments:

from 1

Female antennae:

clubbed

Male antennae:

clubbed

Apomorphies:

Lateral plates of pronotum not fused medially.  Foretarsus with distinctly bifid claws.  Outer edge of forewing third axillary with tooth.  Pterin pigments in wing scales

Larval food items include:

Brassicaeceae.  Fabaceae.  Capparidacea.  Loranthaceae.  Other plant groups

Larval food habits description:

"Larvae feed particularly on Brassicaeceae and Fabaceae" (Scoble, 1992)

Description of egg life history:

Eggs are laid on the foodplant (Scoble 1992).

Systematic and taxonomic history:

The phylogenetic position of the Pieridae is uncertain and needs further study. Two conflicting hypotheses have been proposed:  1. Pieridae is the sister group of Papilionidae (supported by characters described in Scott and Wright 1990);  2. Pieridae is the sister taxon to (Nymphalidae+Lycaenidae) - supporting characters described in Kristensen, 1976.

Fossil record:

There are several fossil specimen known; information on these is entered into the LepTree  fossil database under Pieridae.  These fossil specimen are:  Belenois crawshayi Butler Coliates proseripina Scudder, 1875 Oligodonta florissantensis Brown, 1976 Pierites sp. (Branscheid, 1968, 1969) Pierites sp. (Branscheid, 1969) Pierites sp. (Kernbach, 1967) Pontia freyeri (Heer, 1849) Stolopsyche libytheoides Scudder, 1889  And several possible Pieridae fossils: Miopieris talboti Zeuner, 1942 sp. (Richter & Storch, 1980)

Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Pieridae

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
                                                             

Specimen Records:	5,829
Specimens with Sequences:	5,437
Specimens with Barcodes:	4,933
Public Records:	2,411
Species:	551
Species With Barcodes:	524

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