Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Anthocharis cardamines (Linnaeus, 1758)

(of which subspecies, Anthocharis cardamines britannica (Verity, 1908)).

Regular readers, if such a thing existed, might feel somehow betrayed by my promising to post an image of a vertebrate, only for said image to feature an often-overlooked group that some, for reasons unknown to myself, do not find appealing.

Usually I would respond to such a petty complaint with a witty put-down, but I'll be charitable today and compromise - this time, I'm going to include a member of the one invertebrate group that almost everyone, everywhere finds appealing.

Onwards!

(PS - you'll notice that species included in previous posts are named in the taxonomy. If you click on these names, you'll hopefully also notice that they are hyperlinks to the post in which that animal was featured. As a rule, these links will be shown at the most recent shared ancestor between today's species and the linked species. I'm just trying it). 

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa also includes  Hipposideros vittatus and Thelotornis capensis oatesii and Lygodactylus capensis and also Chalcophaps indica
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda also includes Ligia oceanica
                Hexapoda
                  Insecta
                    Dicondylia
                      Pterygota
                       Manopterygota also includes Pseudagrion hageni
                          Neoptera also includes Cyathosternum prehensile and Sybilla
                            Eumetabola also includes Anoplocnemis curvipes and Pephricus.
                              Endopterygota also includeMelolontha melolontha and Anthia fornasiini and Hagenomyia tristis and Synagris proserpina and Otiorhynchus atroapterus .
                                Panorpida also includes Panorpa germanica and  Helophilus pendulus and Diasemopsis meigenii and Megistocera filipes filipes .
                                  Amphiesmenoptera
                                    Lepidoptera
                                      Glossata
                                        Neolepidoptera
                                          Heteroneura
                                            Ditrysia also includes Zebronia phenice
                                              Cossina
                                                Bombycina
                                                  Rhopacera
                                                    Papilionoidea
                                                      Pieridae
                                                        Pierinae
                                                          Anthocharini

Anthocharis cardamines brittanica 
(Verity, 1908)

Anthocharis cardamines britannica (Verity 1908) Bosham, West Sussex, UK. May 2013
Pictured perched on a field-side nettle in Bosham, West Sussex, UK.
 As the supspecific epithet ('britannica') would suggest, this subspecies is found primarily in the UK, where - over the main island (Great Britain) it is the only subspecies present. In the UK, it is commonly known as the Orange Tip. Although butterflies bearing this common name are common across most continents, this species (Anthocharis cardamines, various subspecies) is more-or-less restricted to temperate Eurasia.

It lays its eggs primarily on wild mustard-related plants, and so it often present in un-mowed verges of fields (and presumably causes some minor damage to cruciferous crops such as Rape) but is more noteworthy as a pollinator than a pest.

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