Neophasia menapia, the pine white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in the western United States and in southern British Columbia, Canada.[1][2][3]

Pine white
Male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Neophasia
Species:
N. menapia
Binomial name
Neophasia menapia
(C. & R. Felder, 1859)
Synonyms
  • Pieris ninonia
  • Neophasia menapia f. nigracosta

It is mostly white with black veins and wing bars. The species is similar to Neophasia terlooii but their ranges only overlap in New Mexico.[1][2]

The wingspan is 42–50 millimetres (1.7–2.0 in).[1] Its habitats include pine forests and Douglas fir forests in northern coastal California.[4]

The host plants are Pinus species, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Tsuga heterophylla, Abies balsamea, Abies grandis, and Picea sitchensis.[5] Adults feed on flower nectar from rabbitbrush, other yellow-flowered composites, and monarda.[4]

Neophasia menapia are a univoltine species that lay their eggs on live pine needles, as stated by a scientific research paper ("Phylogeography and the population genertics of pine butterflies") that details the differences between Neophasia.[6]

Subspecies

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Subspecies include:

  • Neophasia menapia menapia
  • Neophasia menapia tau (Scudder, 1861)[7]
  • Neophasia menapia melanica Scott, 1981
  • Neophasia menapia tehachapina Emmel, Emmel & Mattoon, 1998
  • Neophasia menapia megamenapia Austin, 1998

References

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  1. ^ a b c Pine White, Butterflies of Canada
  2. ^ a b Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman (2003). Butterflies of North America. Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY. ISBN 0618153128
  3. ^ "Species Neophasia menapia - Pine White - Hodges#4187 - BugGuide.Net". bugguide.net.
  4. ^ a b "Neophasia menapia". explorer.natureserve.org.
  5. ^ Neophasia, funet.fi
  6. ^ Halbritter, Dale A.; Storer, Caroline G.; Kawahara, Akito Y.; Daniels, Jaret C. (2019). "Phylogeography and population genetics of pine butterflies: Sky islands increase genetic divergence". Ecology and Evolution. 9 (23): 13389–13401. Bibcode:2019EcoEv...913389H. doi:10.1002/ece3.5793. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 6912906. PMID 31871652.
  7. ^ Pelham, J. A Catalogue of the Butterflies and Moths of the United States and Canada. Revised 18 April 2019