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Species Pontia protodice - Checkered White - Hodges#4193

Checkered White? - Pontia protodice - female Checkered White, Mating Pair - Pontia protodice - male - female Tuberous Indian Plantain butterfly - Pontia protodice - female Grayish Pontia on Sisymbrium loeselii - Pontia protodice - male Pontia protodice - Checkered White? - Pontia protodice - female Pontia protodice - Checkered White - Pontia protodice Checkered White- Pontia protodice - Pontia protodice Caterpillar - Pontia protodice
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Pieridae (Whites, Sulphurs, Yellows)
Subfamily Pierinae (Whites)
Tribe Pierini (Cabbage Whites, Checkered Whites, Albatrosses)
Genus Pontia (Checkered Whites)
Species protodice (Checkered White - Hodges#4193)
Hodges Number
4193
Other Common Names
Southern Cabbageworm (1)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Pontia protodice (Boisduval & LeConte, 1830)
Size
Wingspan 3.8-6.3 cm
Identification
Adult: Sexually dimorphic. Males are nearly all white, with some dark spots and dashes on the dorsal side of FW. Females are have considerably more dark markings on the dorsal side of FW. (1)
Range
Entire United States and southern Canada, but spotty in the East, and often irratic in abundance toward the north.
Habitat
Open areas
Season
Year-round, depending upon climate and weather. Usually multiple-brooded with two or three broods in most of US but with continuous overlapping brooding some years in the Southwest. Usually rare or uncommon during winter even in mild climates.
Food
Larvae feed on Mustard Family (Brassicaceae), including Cabbage (Brassica oleraceae) as well as Caper Family (Capparidaceae) including Rocky Mountain Bee-plant (Cleome serrulata).
Remarks
Rather irregular in distribution in eastern North America, not seen every year in many localities, such as Piedmont region of North Carolina.
Can be extremely abundant, sometimes in the Southwest and Great Plains with thousands of individuals swarming flowers and puddles, and even coming to lights at night.
Can seem to disappear for a year or three during extreme drought, only to explode in numbers when rains come.
Works Cited
1.A Photographic Field Guide to the Butterflies in the Kansas City Region
Betsy Betros. 2008. Kansas City Star Books.