Wood white
Leptidea sinapis, or the wood white butterfly of the family Pieridae, 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.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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starts withWood white butterflies have white wings, sometimes with small grey or yellowish markings towards the middle or edge of the wing. Males have white-tipped antennae, while females have brown-tipped antennae. They have a 36-44mm wingspan.
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 midlands and southern 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 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.
There is no local or regional migration of the wood white. The wood white is a bivoltine species, meaning that there are two generations of eggs that hatch in one year. The two generations of butterflies emerge and fly in May through June and secondly in July through August. Egg laying, hatching of the larvae, and pupation occur during the winter (over-wintering). Studies about how climate changes during the winter months affect pupation are being conducted to help develop conservation plans.
Adult wood whites fly slowly, and they appear to flutter. Males spend the majority of their lifetime flying low over shrubbery to find possible mates.
The wood white butterfly was named a UK BAP Priority Species candidate in 2005, due to the substantial drop in population size in the last quarter century. There are several habitat-related reasons behind the drop in wood white butterfly. Researchers hypothesize that this could be due to the changing treatment of woodland areas, including over-planting of trees. Many of the woodlands where wood whites colonize were replanted in the last 50 years, leading to a large increase in the amount of shade over the woodland rides and shrubbery. Very little is understood about how to upkeep woodland areas so that they are sufficient for wood white colonization; this is the main area of research on conversation presently.
There have been efforts to recolonize areas of the United Kingdom as part of a 10-year plan to reintroduce more wood whites into the area. This recolonization involves maintaining woodland ride areas to minimize loss of vegetation and dispersing the butterflies strategically into woodland ride areas in Britain. Another major point of interest for the conservation effort is to examine how weather and climate change, particularly in the winter, affects pupation, since this process largely takes place over winter (called overwintering of the pupae).
