The Pieridae are a lairge faimily o butterflees wi aboot 76 genera containin approximately 1,100 species, maistly frae tropical Africae an Asie.[1] Maist pierid butterflees are white, yellae or orange in coloration, eften wi black spots. The pigments that gie the distinct colourin tae thir butterflees are derived frae waste products in the body an are a characteristic o this faimily.[2]

Pieridae
Common jezebel, Delias eucharis
Scientific classification e
Kinrick: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Cless: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfaimily: Papilionoidea
Faimily: Pieridae
Swainson, 1820
Subfaimilies

Dismorphiinae
Pseudopontiinae
Pierinae
Coliadinae

Diversity
76 genera
1,051 species
Sleepy Oranges mud-puddlin on a damp spot, Stuckey, Sooth Carolina

It is believed that the name "butterfly" oreeginated frae a member o this faimily — the Brimstone Gonepteryx rhamni — which wis cried the "butter-coloured fly" bi early Breetish naituralists.[2]

The sexes uisually differ, eften in the pattern or nummer o the black markins.

The larvae (caterpillars) o a few o thir species, sic as Pieris brassicae an Pieris rapae, commonly seen in gardens, feed on brassicas, an are notorious agricultural pests.

Males o mony species exhibit gregarious mud-puddlin behaviour when thay mey imbibe salts frae moist soils.[1]

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Cloodit Yellow, Colias croceus
 
Psyche Butterflee, Leptosia nina

References

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  1. a b DeVries P. J. in Levin S.A. (ed) 2001 The Encyclopaedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press.
  2. a b Carter, David, Butterflies and Moths (2000)

Further Readin

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  • Glassberg, Jeffrey Butterflies through Binoculars, The West (2001)
  • James, David G. an Nunnallee, David Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies (2011)
  • Pyle, Robert Michael The Butterflies of Cascadia (2002)

Freemit airtins

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