Pieris virginiensis

Pieris virginiensis, the West Virginia white, is a butterfly found in North America in the Great Lakes states, along the Appalachians from New England to Alabama, and in southern Ontario. They are typically found in moist deciduous forests. Forestry, development, and a highly-invasive species that it confuses with its host plant are causing this species to decline.[1]

West Virginia white
On wild mustard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Pieris
Species:
P. virginiensis
Binomial name
Pieris virginiensis
Edwards, 1870

Along with the butterfly Pieris oleracea, it is threatened by the invasive weed garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata. The butterflies, having not evolved to be familiar with the plant, confuse it with their host plants. The offspring laid on garlic mustard do not survive.[2][3]

It has translucent whitish wings of length 4.5–5.5 cm; the hindwing underside has brownish or pale gray scaling along the veins.

Literary references

In line 316 of Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, this butterfly is referenced: “The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May.” The moniker refers to its habit of laying eggs on the toothwort.

West Virginia
gollark: Oh, that's fine then.
gollark: Do they replace it somehow or do you just die?
gollark: What does that involve then?
gollark: You have significant latency, and encoding video fast enough and for the low bandwidth of most home internet connections means you have rather low quality.
gollark: I mean, it sort of works, but game streaming isn't very good over non-local connections, and not great over those.

References
Specific
  1. Lotts, K., Naberhaus, T., 2016. "West Virginia White". Butterflies and Moths of North America. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Pieris-virginiensis
  2. Driesche, F.V.; Blossey, B.; Hoodle, M.; Lyon, S.; Reardon, R., 2010. Biological Control of Invasive Plants in the Eastern United States. USDA Forest Service. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team. http://wiki.bugwood.org/Archive:BCIPEUS
  3. Davis, S., 2015. Evaluating threats to the rare butterfly, Pieris virginiensis. Wright State University. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=wright1431882480&disposition=inline


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