''Melete lycimnia'', the common melwhite, primrose flag or lycimnia white flag, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the family

Pieridae 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.DeVries P. J. in Levi ...

. It is found from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in the United States to

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. The habitat consists of lowland rainforests.Butterflies of the Amazon and Andes
/ref> The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is .Parque Nacional Sangay (Ecuador)
/ref> The appearance of the adults depends on the subspecies and ranges from a white ground colour, narrow black borders, and a yellow spot at the base of the hindwings (''M. l. peruviana'') to primrose yellow, with wide brown borders (''M. l. lycimnia''). In all subspecies, females are more yellowish. The larvae probably feed on

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 W ...

species.

Subspecies

The following

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: *''M. l. lycimnia'' (Suriname) *''M. l. flippantha'' (Fabricius, 1793) (Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais) *''M. l. isandra'' (Boisduval, 1836) (Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica) *''M. l. peruviana'' (Lucas, 1852) (Peru, Bolivia, Brazil: Amazonas) *''M. l. aelia'' (C. & R. Felder, 1861) (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia) *''M. l. eurymnia'' (C. & R. Felder, 1865) (Colombia) *''M. l. monstrosa'' (Butler, 1875) (Panama) *''M. l. chagris'' (Staudinger, 1876) (Panama) *''M. l. harti'' (Butler, 1896) (Trinidad) *''M. l. latilimbata'' (Butler, 1896) (Ecuador) *''M. l. petronia'' Fruhstorfer, 1907 (Brazil: Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul) *''M. l. phazania'' Fruhstorfer, 1907 (Brazil: Bahia) *''M. l. theodori'' Fruhstorfer, 1907 (Brazil: Amazonas) *''M. l. paulista'' Fruhstorfer, 1908 (Brazil: São Paulo) *''M. l. napona'' (Röber, 1909) (Ecuador, Peru) *''M. l. narmia'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Brazil: Mato Grosso)

References

Pierini Butterflies described in 1777 Lepidoptera of Brazil Pieridae of South America Taxa named by Pieter Cramer {{Pieridae-stub