Aporia crataegi

Aporia crataegi, the black-veined white, is a large butterfly of the family Pieridae.It survives in much of Europe but it has been extinct in Great Britain since about 1925. It was a favourite of Sir Winston Churchill who tried to reintroduce the beautiful species to Southern England where it used to thrive in earlier times. He released colonies of Black veined whites in the large grounds of his home at Chartwell in Kent but they did not survive. Subspecies include: It occurs in open forest, grazing land, orchards. lanes, gardens, meadows and thickets throughout most of Europe, temperate Asia, Korea, and Japan. This species is extinct in the British Isles. The black-veined white has a wingspan of 51 to 70 mm (2.0 to 2.8 in). Females are commonly larger than males. The upperside of both forewings and hindwings is a translucent white boldly veined with black. The underside is similar in the male but the female has brown veining. Moreover, the female loses most of her scales by rubbing her wings together, resulting almost-transparent. This butterfly can be distinguished from other members of white butterflies of the genus Pieris by its distinctive veined wings. The eggs are yellow at first, darkening with age. The caterpillars are greenish grey with transverse banding. The pupa is creamy white, marked with black, attached by a silken girdle to a twig. The flight period of the black-veined white is between April and July. The adults are quite social and their abundance varies greatly from year to year. The eggs are laid on the food plant, usually a member of the rose family Rosaceae and often on trees and bushes (Malus domestica, Malus micromalus, Pyrus communis, Pyrus serotina, Sorbus intermedia, Sorbus hybrida, Sorbus aucuparia, Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus oxyacantha, Crataegus jozana, Prunus spinosa, Prunus padus, Prunus ssiori, Betula spp., Salix phylicifolia, Chaenomeles lagenaria).