Madeira cabbage white butterfly

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Madeira cabbage white butterfly
Madeira Cabbage White (female)

Madeira Cabbage White (female)

Systematics
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Whitelings (Pieridae)
Subfamily : True whiteflies (Pierinae)
Genre : Pieris
Type : Great Cabbage White butterfly ( Pieris brassicae )
Subspecies : Madeira cabbage white butterfly
Scientific name
Pieris brassicae wollastoni
( Butler , 1886)

The Madeira cabbage white butterfly ( Pieris brassicae wollastoni , syn .: Pieris wollastoni ), listed as a separate species by the IUCN , is a presumably extinct subspecies of the great cabbage white butterfly that was endemic to Madeira . The epithet honors Thomas Vernon Wollaston , an English entomologist who discovered numerous species of insects in Madeira.

features

The Madeira cabbage white butterfly reached a wingspan of 55 to 65 millimeters. The basic color of the wings was pure white. On the back of the forewings, the females had black discal spots fused together. The wing tips were black.

Habitat and way of life

The Madeira Cabbage White was found in north-facing valleys. He lived in Laurisilva forests at altitudes between 650 and 1,200 m. The main food of the caterpillars consisted of the leaves of the vegetable cabbage ( Brassica oleracea ).

status

The Madeira Cabbage White is classified by the IUCN in the critically endangered category . The last reliable evidence dates back to 1977, when three males were collected in the vicinity of Pico de Encumeada and the Paul da Serra plateau . After a fifteen-year search for this butterfly failed, the extinction of this subspecies was reported in November 2007 at an expert congress in Laufen an der Salzach . One of the reasons for the disappearance of the Madeira cabbage white butterfly could have been a viral infection that was introduced with the small cabbage white butterfly ( Pieris rapae ) during the 1950s .

literature

  • AE Holt White, Rashleigh Holt White (Ed.): The butterflies and moths of Teneriffe . Illustrated from the author's drawings. L. Reeve & Co., London, 1894
  • John Feltwell: Large white butterfly: The Biology, Biochemistry and Physiology of Pieris Brassicae (Linnaeus) . Springer, 1982 ISBN 9-061-93128-2
  • B. Gardiner: The possible cause of extinction of Pieris brassicae wollastoni Butler (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) . In: Entomologist's Gazette 54: 267-268, 2003
  • AM Franquinho Aguiar, Ole Karsholt: Systematic catalog of the entomofauna of the Madeira Archipelago and Selvagens Islands. - Funchal: Câmara Municipal. 1. Lepidoptera , 2009, online (PDF; 1.8 MB)

Web links