Appias ada

Appias ada, the rare albatross, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It is found on the Moluccas, New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia and the Solomon Islands.

Rare albatross
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Appias
Species:
A. ada
Binomial name
Appias ada
(Stoll, [1781])
Synonyms
  • Papilio ada Stoll, [1781]
  • Appias caria Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914

Subspecies
  • Appias ada ada
  • Appias ada thasia (Papua)
  • Appias ada caria (north-eastern Australia)
  • Appias ada solstitialis

Description

The wingspan of males is 59 mm, while in females it is 54 mm.[1] Upper segment of the forewings are white with a black costa, as well as black dots along the margin. Males have a white dot near the apex. The hind wings also have black margins, however are coloured a pale yellow. The underside of both male and female forewings are white with a black costa, while hindwing undersides are yellow. In the female, the black sections of the underside are larger, and the apex of the forewing is more rounded.[1] A. ada males are visually similar to those of D. ennia, especially the subspecies D. e. tindalti, both of which occur in the Cape York region of Australia.[1] The distinguishing feature is the lack of orange spots on the hind wing's underside.

Life cycle

Eggs: Laid singularly, placed on the young shoots of their food source. Shaped like a spindle (height of 1 mm, width of 0.5mm), and initially white, they change to orange before hatching. Larva: 35 mm long; blue-green body, with "numerous blue conical tubercles, a yellow middorsal line, and a white ventrolateral line".[1] The head is pale yellow, with blue stripes. Feed on the young shoots of Crateva religiosa, also known as Temple Plant.[2] It does not survive if fed older leaves. Pupa: 27mm long. Yellow with black dorsal spots. Black spine with a white cremaster.[1] Life cycle is completed within three weeks of summer: egg 4 days, larva 10 days, pupa 6 days [1]

Ecology

Occurrence records show the habitat of A. ada to range from open woody trees to sparse grasses.[3] Of the various species, only A. a. caria is apparent in Australia, to which it is endemic.[2] The larva rests on the midrib of a leaf, spinning a slik pad on which it sits.[1] Adults often fly rapidly along watercourses, and have been recorded all months excluding March.[1] The mitochondrial genome for A. ada has been sequenced.[4]

gollark: It is complete.
gollark: Okay, I got it properly working now.
gollark: It now says "Comrades" and links to "/Comrades".
gollark: Okay, this is unfortunate, it breaks the /dragons link...
gollark: I made it replace lowercase only.

See also

References
  1. Braby, M., 2000, 'Butterflies of Australia: Their Identification, Biology and Distribution'
  2. "Appias ada". lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au.
  3. Australia, Atlas of Living. "Appias ada : Orange Albatross". bie.ala.org.au.
  4. "Appias ada voucher 11ANIC-06913 cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene, partial cds; mitochondrial". August 13, 2013 – via NCBI Nucleotide. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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