PIERIS Nigrina.
Although this elegantly marked insect has long been known to Entomologists, we believe it has only once been figured. It is not uncommon in Australia, and being a typical species, we select it to illustrate this group.
PIERIS Nigrina.
Pieris (pars.) Latr: Stev. Pontia (pars.) Fab. Horsf.
Generic Character.
Antennæ with a spatulate, considerably compressed, obovate club. Palpi hairy: the first joint with basal articulations, (Horsf. pl. 4. f. 10) beyond which it is hardly longer than the second, or the third, which are each of equal length. Anterior Wings with the exterior margin manifestly shorter than the posterior.
Type. Pieris Belisama. Lat.
Specific Character.
Wings above white in one sex, grey in the other; anterior tipt with black; beneath black, with a terminal band of yellow: posterior wings beneath black, varied with grey, and marked with an undulated, nearly central, border of crimson.
Pieris Nigrina. Fab. Sys. Ent. 475. Ent. Sys. 3. 1. 20. Ency. Meth. p. 149. Don. Ins. of New Holl. 19. f. 1.
The Butterflies called Whites, in the common language of Collectors, (Pieris, Lat.) are distinguished by their great simplicity of colouring, and a predominence of white upon their wings. It is a singular fact, that the various species of this family, among which are included the different white Butterflies of Europe; feed chiefly on such plants as are nourishing and salutary to the human body, such as the various sorts of cabbages, coleworts, turnips, &c., and in every foreign country where these white Butterflies have been found, plants of the same nutricious qualities, are sure to be discovered in the vicinity of their haunts.
The group to which we here restrict the name of Pieris, is confined, we believe, exclusively to the old world, and principally to intertropical latitudes. We have been much embarassed, however, in applying this name correctly. Dr. Horsfield has placed many of our Indian Pieres under the genus Pontia, which group is restricted by Mr. Stephens to European insects. As this latter disposition is more in unison with our own views, we have adapted it; considering P. Cratægi to be the only aberrant representative of Pieris in Europe.