The Pieridae are a large

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

butterflies 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 ...

with about 76

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

containing about 1,100

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, mostly from

tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the tropi ...

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 ...

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 John Swainson William John Swainson FLS, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of ...

in 1820. The name "butterfly" is believed to have originated from a member of this family, the brimstone, ''

Gonepteryx rhamni ''Gonepteryx rhamni'' (known as 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 species o ...

'', 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 (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

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 Sym ...

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 ra ...

'' 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, or mustard plants. Crops from this genus are sometimes called ''cole cr ...

s, and are notorious agricultural pests. Males of many species exhibit gregarious

mud-puddling Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck ...

behavior when they may imbibe salts from moist soils.

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 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 have a red ...

, 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 ci ...

, unlike in the

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful 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 includes the larges ...

. Like the Papilionidae, the Pieridae also have their

pupae A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''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 ...

held at an angle by a silk girdle, but running at the first abdominal segment, unlike the

thoracic The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, 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 divisions of the crea ...

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 Westwood in 1834. Locally known as ''Mariposa del madroño'' or ''tzauhquiocuilin'', it is endemic to ...

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 subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

: *

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 Neotropical region, of which only one species occurs in North America and one ge ...

(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 bioge ...

; this group includes several mimetic species. The host plants are in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

. *

Pierinae The Pierinae are a large subfamily of pierid 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 under the tribes list ...

(55 genera), whites, yellows, and orange-tips; many of these species are strongly migratory. Host plants are in the families

Capparidaceae The Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), commonly known as the caper family, are a family of plants in the order Brassicales. As currently circumscribed, the family contains 33 genera and about 700 species. The largest genera are '' Capparis'' (about ...

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...

Santalaceae The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants (including small trees, shrubs, perennial herbs, and epiphytic climbersHewson & George t al.br>''Santalaceae'' taxonomy, 1984, pp. 191-194.) which, like other membe ...

, 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 W ...

. *

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 f ...

(14 genera), sulphurs or yellows; many of these species are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. 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''. Howev ...

includes only the genus '' Pseudopontia'', which was formerly considered monotypic. Its type species—formerly the sole species in this subfamily—''

Pseudopontia paradoxa ''Pseudopontia paradoxa'' is a species of butterfly found only in wet forests of tropical Africa. It was traditionally thought to be the only species (monotypic) in the genus '' Pseudopontia'' and the subfamily Pseudopontiinae. However, a recent ...

'', 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 popular species

Dark Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) Im IMG 6792

* Brimstone, ''Gonepteryx rhamni'' * California dogface, ''Zerene eurydice'' * Catalina orangetip, ''Anthocharis cethura catalina'' * Cloudless sulphur, ''Phoebis sennae'' * Clouded yellow, ''Colias croceus'' * Orange tip, ''Anthocharis cardamines'' * Psyche butterfly, ''Leptosia nina'' Common grass jewel Im IMG 7022

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 Pieris brassicae - Large Cabbage White - 02

* ''

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 * ''

'', small white or cabbage white * ''

'', large white or cabbage white

References

External links

TOL

GloBIS Database
Includes type images

In Japanese but

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

s 3 pages of images. Tip Next page.
Holarctic Pieridae

"Family Pieridae"
''Insecta.pro''.

on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
BHL
Bridges ''Catalogue of the Papilionidae and Pieridae''.

{{Authority control Butterfly families Taxa named by William John Swainson Papilionoidea