Kingdom Animalia Tribe Anthocharini Scientific name Anthocharis cardamines Higher classification Anthocharis Order Butterflies and moths | Family Pieridae Genus Anthocharis Phylum Arthropoda Rank Species | |
 | ||
Similar Anthocharis, Butterflies and moths, Green‑veined white, Gonepteryx rhamni, Holly blue | ||
Anthocharis cardamines
Anthocharis cardamines, the orange tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae.
Contents
Oranjetipje anthocharis cardamines orange tip
Appearance, behaviour and distribution
The common name derives from the bright orange tips of the male's forewings. The males are a common sight in spring, flying along hedgerows and damp meadows in search of the more reclusive female which lacks the orange and is often mistaken for one of the other 'white' butterflies. The undersides are mottled green and white and create a superb camouflage when settled on flowerheads such as cow parsley and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). The male is able to hide his orange tips by tucking the forewings behind the hindwings at rest. On close examination of the mottling, the green colour can be seen to be made up of a mixture of black and yellow scales. The butterfly is found across Europe, and eastwards into temperate Asia as far as Japan. The past 30 years have seen a rapid increase in the range of the orange tip in the UK, particularly in Scotland and Ireland, probably in response to climate change.
Lifecycle and foodplants
The female lays eggs singly on the flowerheads of cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and many other species of wild crucifers, all of which contain substances called glucosinolates. Females are attracted to larger flowers, such as Hesperis matronalis, even though some such species are poor larval hosts. Selection of foodplants is triggered by the presence of mustard oils and their derivative glucosinolates, which (in Pierinae) are detected by chemosensory hairs on the fore-legs. Reproductive rate of females appears to be limited by difficulties in finding suitable hosts. As a consequence, the species has evolved to use a wide range of crucifers.
The eggs are white to begin with but change to a bright orange after a few days before darkening off just before hatching. Because the larvae feed almost exclusively on the flowers and developing seedpods there is rarely enough food to support more than one larva per plant. If two larvae meet one will often be eaten by the other to eliminate its competitor. Newly hatched larvae will also eat unhatched eggs for the same reason. To stop eggs from being laid on plants already laid on the female leaves a pheromone to deter future females from laying. There are five larval instars. The green and white caterpillar is attacked by several natural enemies (notably tachinid flies and braconid wasps).
Pupation occurs in early summer in scrubby vegetation near the foodplant, where they stay to emerge the following spring. Recent research suggests that the emergence of the butterfly may be delayed for as much as two years, thus insuring the species against unfavourable conditions in a given season.
Habitat
Damp pastures and meadows, damp woodland edges and glades, riverbanks, ditches, dykes, fens, railway cuttings and country lanes.
Subspecies
Aberrations. Whether speciosa form. nov. Röber (22 g), from Southern Styria, is a local or individual form, we are at present not able to decide; very large, the orange patch fiery, distinct black spots on the discocellulars and at the distal margin of the hindwing, the green markings of the hindwing beneath almost regularly band-like [now considered an aberration. : ab. crocea form. nov. Röber Asia Minor (Kara-Hissar) a pretty aberration which has a lemon-yellow apical patch to the forewing, the patch being of the same size as in turritis.