Leptidea sinapis
| Wood white butterfly | |
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| Kampinos Forest, Poland | |
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| Sennwald, Switzerland | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Pieridae |
| Genus: | Leptidea |
| Species: | L. sinapis |
| Binomial name | |
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Leptidea sinapis (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Leptidea sinapis, or the wood white butterfly of the Pieridae family, is a small white butterfly that is mainly found in England, Ireland, and Northern Europe. The butterfly has white wings with grey or yellow markings near the center or tip of the wing. It flies slowly and low over its shrubbery habitat. Males initiate courtship with females and can mate multiply, while females tend to only mate once in their lifetime.
The wood white was added to the UK BAP Priority Species list in 2005 due to a substantial decline in the population, especially in England. This decline has been attributed to changes in woodland regions, including increased shade due to tree planting, and the failure to maintain woodland rides in a satisfactory way for wood whites to oviposit. Conservation efforts are currently striving to understand how to best maintain woodland regions and are examining the effect of climate change (particularly during the winter months) on egg survival.
There are several subspecies of L. sinapis. These subspecies are all found in nearby regions, and thus geographical variation is slight. The following subspecies are recognized:
These subspecies, although they look similar, are different in the physiology of their genitals and are reproductively isolated from the wood white due to female conspecific mating choice.
The wood white is found in Europe and eastwards across the Caucasus, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Middle Asia, Kazakhstan and south Siberia to the Baikal region.
Within Europe, the wood white is unevenly distributed across the Midlands and Southern England, as well as Northern Europe and Ireland. Since the species is currently depleting in size throughout England, it is primarily found in woodland pockets, such as the Haugh and Wigmore Woods of Herefordshire.L. sinapis is also found in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Spain and Ireland.
The wood white is found in the northern parts of the United Kingdom, largely in the clearings among woodlands or nearby shrubbery. They can often also be found in areas where there is substantial shelter, such as abandoned railway tracks and cliffs near the sea shore, as well as meadows, forest edges and sparse forests up to 2,500 m above sea level. One of the most consistently populous regions of northern England in terms of L. sinapis is in Herefordshire, particularly the Haugh Wood and Wigmore Rolls woodlands. The wood white requires habitats with substantial vegetation and shrubbery in order to lay eggs and pupate, however they are very particular about the amount of shade in their habitat. Substantial habitat loss for wood whites occurs as a result of too much shrubbery or shade in their living environments. They select very specific food-plants within these habitats.
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Wikipedia