Belongs within: Pieridae.
Delias, the jezebels, is a genus of butterflies found in the Indo-Pacific region. Larvae of the great majority of species feed on mistletoes and sandalwoods of the Santalales. Adults often have the underside of the wings marked in contrasting patterns of red, yellow and black. The fore wings of Delias have three branches on the radial vein with R2 absent and R4+5 as a single vein stalked with R3 (Braby 2000).
Butterflies on parasites
Published 14 August 2007
I’ve referred to butterflies in the past as “honorary vertebrates”, as they seem to be about the only group of invertebrates that receive as much attention and recognition as vertebrate groups seem to. What those of us in the know can tell you, though, is that really butterflies are just a flashy kind of moth. Here, I’ll be looking at butterflies of the genus Delias.
Delias, commonly known for no particular reason as ‘jezebels’, are found from southern and south-east Asia to the northern tip of Australia. The bright colouration in the photo above is usually restricted to the underside of the wings, while the upper side is far plainer—most often white with black edging, as shown in the illustration below (a notable exception in Australia is Delias aruna, which has the upper surface of the wings bright orange-yellow). Nevertheless, they appear to be among the more colourful members of the generally modest family Pieridae, which may be best known to many of you by the cabbage whites of the genus Pieris.
There are a large number of species of Delias (I couldn’t be bothered actually counting them up) placed in 23 species groups. If you want to know exactly what they all are, I’d recommend looking at Les Day’s exceedingly thorough site dedicated to Delias at www.delias-butterflies.co.uk. The caterpillars feed on mistletoes (hence the title of this post), which makes them notable from a conservation point of view—many mistletoes are rare and/or endangered (their thick, fleshy leaves make them very attractive to browsers), and if a species of mistletoe goes extinct then its specialist herbivores go extinct as well. While most members of Pieridae lay eggs singly, Delias lay their eggs in large clusters. The caterpillars come in a range of colours, and have long white hairs—the photo below shows both the hairs and their gregarious habits. The chrysalis is brightly-coloured, usually bright yellow or orange.
Many species of Delias have seasonal varieties, with the dry-season or winter variety being darker above, or having the underside more cryptically coloured. Studies in other Pieridae have shown that rather than being genetically determined, these variations appear to be determined by the photoperiod the larva is exposed to during development, specifically during the third and fourth instars (Hoffmann 1973). Experimental manipulation of photoperiod exposure has even been able to induce ‘seasonal variation’ in species that are univoltine (only one generation per year) instead of multivoltine (multiple generations per year—Shapiro 1977).
Systematics of Delias
<==Delias Hübner 1819B00
`--D. (Cathaemia Hübner 1820)F55
|--D. (C.) caeneus (Linnaeus 1758)F55
|--D. (C.) hypareteF55
| |--D. h. hypareteF55
| |--D. h. domorana Fruhstorfer 1911F55
| |--D. h. lucina Distant 1887F55
| `--D. h. luzonensis (Felder 1852) (see below for synonymy)F55
|--D. (C.) poecilea (Vollenhoven 1865)F55
`--D. (C.) rosenbergi (Vollenhoven 1865) [=Pieris rosenbergi]F55
|--D. r. rosenbergiF55
`--D. r. lorquini (Felder 1865)F55
Delias incertae sedis:
D. aestiva Butler 1897 [=D. mysis aestiva]B12
D. aganippe (Donovan 1805)B00
D. aglaiaF55
|--D. a. aglaiaF55
|--D. a. egialea (Cramer 1777)F55
`--D. a. pandecta Staudinger 1889F55
D. argenthona (Fabricius 1793)B00
|--D. a. argenthonaB12
`--D. a. fragalactea (Butler 1869)B12
D. aruna (Boisduval 1832)B00
|--D. a. arunaB00
`--D. a. inferna Butler 1871 [incl. D. aruna arovana Fruhstorfer 1911, D. aruna irma Fruhstorfer 1907]B00
D. baracasa Semper 1890F55
D. belisamaAYI11
D. belladonnaS72
D. blanca (Felder 1865) [=Pieris blanca]F55
D. chrysomelaena (Vollenhoven 1866)F55
D. diaphana Semper 1878F55
D. dorylaea Felder 1865 [incl. D. dorylaea var. altivaga Fruhstorfer 1894]F55
D. ennia (Wallace 1867)B00
|--D. e. enniaB00
|--D. e. nigidius Miskin 1884B00
`--D. e. tindalii Joicey & Talbot 1926B00
D. eucharisA73
D. georgina Felder 1865F55
D. harpalyce (Donovan 1805)B00
D. henningia (Eschscholtz 1821)F55
|--D. h. henningia (see below for synonymy)F55
|--D. h. camotana Fruhstorfer 1910F55
|--D. h. ottonia Semper 1890F55
|--D. h. pandemia (Wallace 1867)F55
`--D. h. voconia Fruhstorfer 1910F55
D. isse Cramer 1775F55
D. lytaea Godman & Salvin 1878F55
D. mysis (Fabricius 1775)B12
|--D. m. mysis [incl. D. mysis waterhousei Talbot 1928–1937]B00
`--D. m. onca Fruhstorfer 1910B00
D. nigrina (Fabricius 1775)B00
D. nysa (Fabricius 1775)B00
|--D. n. nysaB00
`--D. n. nivira Waterhouse & Lyell 1914B00
D. themis Hewitson 1861F55
D. zebuda (Hewitson 1862)F55
Delias henningia henningia (Eschscholtz 1821) [incl. D. henningia hemera Fruhstorfer in Seitz 1910, D. henningia lucerna (Butler 1869), D. henningia var. ochreopicta (Butler 1869)]F55
Delias (Cathaemia) hyparete luzonensis (Felder 1852) [incl. D. hyparete luzonensis f. mindanaensis Mitis 1893, D. hyparete mindorensis Fruhstorfer 1910]F55
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[AYI11] Amanda, T. P. O., S. Yaakop & A. B. Idris. 2011. A catalogue of the genus-group Theronia (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) from Sundaland. Serangga 16 (1): 75–89.
[A73] Ashton, R. 1973. Butterflies of New Delhi (Papilionoidea). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 69 (3): 502–509.
[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 1. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).
Braby, M. F. 2004. The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Australia).
[B12] Braby, M. F. 2012. The butterflies of El Questro Wilderness Park, with remarks on the taxonomy of the Kimberley fauna, Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 27 (2): 161–175.
[F55] Franz, E. 1955. Die Typen und Typoide des Natur-Museums Senckenberg, 16). Insecta, Lepidoptera, Pieridae. Senckenbergiana Biologica 36: 339–367.
Hoffmann, R. J. 1973. Environmental control of seasonal variation in the butterfly Colias eurytheme. I. Adaptive aspects of a photoperiodic response. Evolution 27 (3): 387–397.
Shapiro, A. M. 1977. Evidence for obligate monophenism in Reliquia santamarta, a Neotropical-alpine pierine butterfly (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). Psyche 84: 183–190.
[S72] Shields, O. 1972. Flower visitation records for butterflies (Lepidoptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 48 (3): 189–203.