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Belenois rubrosignata

(Red-edged White)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Red-edged White

Description

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Family Pieridae

'The Pieridae are members of the Superfamily Papilionoidea, the true butterflies. Worldwide in distribution, most species are found in the tropics. Adults have medium to small wings that are white, yellow, or orange, with some black or red, and many have hidden ultraviolet patterns that are used in courtship . Species with more than one generation usually have distinct seasonal variation in appearance . Adults of all species visit flowers for nectar, and adults of both sexes have three pairs of walking legs . Males patrol in search of receptive mates, and females lay columnar eggs on leaves, buds, and stems. The majority of caterpillars of North American whites and sulphurs feed on legumes or crucifers (members of the Mustard family ). Typically, temperate species overwinter in the pupal or larval stage , while tropical species overwinter as adults.

'[1]

Subfamily Pierinae

Whites, marbles, and orangetips are members of the Family Pieridae. In North America, 31 species are included . Adults of most species are predominantly white above with some black pattern elements , and their hindwings often have a pattern of yellow and black scales that appear green. Sexes of most species are only slightly dimorphic , though male orangetips have bright orange wingtips. Nearly all adults are avid flower visitors. The males of almost all North American species patrol open, sunny habitats for females, although males of some tropical whites (e.g. Mexican Dartwhite) perch along ravines . Caterpillars of most western whites feed on mustards, though some use capers and others, pineneedles. All species overwinter in the chrysalis stage, and some orangetips and marbles may pass several unfavorable years in the chrysalis stage before hatching .[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology:  

The species arises in dense woodland, Brachystegia spp. woodland and also on forest margins (Kielland 1990, Heath et al. 2002). Larval host plants of this butterfly include Ritchiea species (Capparaceae) (Kielland 1990).

[3].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 05-Mar-2007

The nominate subspecies was described from Angola and is found also in Zambia and southern DRC. A further subspecies (ssp. kongwana) occurs in Malawi, much of eastern Tanzania, Uganda and southern Kenya. Ssp. peeli is also recorded from Somalia, but this appears to be biogeographically anomalous . It has been suggested that ssp. peeli may simply represent a dry season form of the nominate subspecies (D'Abrera 1997). Therefore, the taxonomy of this subspecies remains uncertain.[3].

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Belenois

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 5 species and subspecies in this genus:

B. anomala (Socotran Caper White) · B. calypso (Calypso Caper White) · B. raffrayi (Raffrays White) · B. rubrosignata (Red-Edged White) · B. theuszi (Central Caper White)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/taxonomy?f=15&sci=Pieridae&com=Whites and Sulphurs [back]
  2. http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=Creusa&search=Search [back]
  3. Larsen, T. 2011. Belenois rubrosignata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/22/2012