''Pontia'' is a genus of
pierid
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 Le ...
butterflies. They are found in the
Holarctic
The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
, but are rare in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
and central to eastern
North America, and a few species range into the
Afrotropics. 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'' (Hübner, 1808-1813) – small Bath white
* '' Pontia daplidice'' (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
''Pontia occidentalis'', the western white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Western North America.
The wingspan is 38 to 53 millimeters. The host plants are from the mustard or cabbage family, Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae ...
'' (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 (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
, Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
, Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
)
* ''Pontia dubernardi'' ( Gansu, Nanshan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan)
* ''Pontia kozlovi'' (Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
)
* ''Pontia sherpae'' (Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
)
* ''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
{{Pieridae-stub