Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

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Genus Pieris

Representative Images

Mustard White - Pieris oleracea Cabbage white for California in October - Pieris rapae Cabbage White - Pieris rapae West Virginia White - Pieris virginiensis Day 19: Caterpillar - Pieris rapae - female Pieris rapae - Cabbage White butterfly - Pieris rapae Butterfly - Pieris rapae Pieris - Pieris virginiensis
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 Pieris

Numbers

All Leps lists five species, including the introduced species P. rapae.

Food

Feed on members of the Brassicaceae family. They have developed biochemical adaptations to chemicals called glucosinolates present in these plants.

Life Cycle

See:

Remarks

The highest species variety is in the Palaearctic. A few crop-damaging species have been introduced from this area, such as the cabbage white (Pieris rapae), which has become the most abundant representative of this genus and perhaps of all butterflies. The parasitoid Cotesia glomerata has been introduced to control this pest.

Internet References

Science Daily article on Pieris brassicae larva defense mechanism
Oecologia. Foodplant preferences
Wikipedia
Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 9 April, 2004 - 5:08pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Randy Hardy
Last updated 24 September, 2016 - 11:44am

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