Cabbage Whites

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Thu Jun 22 03:37:55 EDT 2000


At 08:35  22/06/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>Doug Dawn wrote
>>Since butterfly farming (A.k.a, breeding, a misnomer IMHO) is so widespread,
>
>>Sharyn Fernandez wrote:
>
>> Also, those who might consider raising "whites" to release in weddings
>> might want to see if they can be permited to raise Pieris symbrisii (or
>> similar species ...napi? ) that is supposedly being displaced by Pieris
>> rapae...
>
>
>Of the 60 professionals butterfly farmers in North America only Ascia
>monuste is reared. They then go onto delight and educate at live
>exhibits and butterfly houses. They are very people friendly and quickly
>alight on visitors. The delicate nature of rapae renders it a very poor
>canidate for releasing. It is also not one of the nine species approved
>by the USDA for releasing.
>
>Rick Mikula
>
- - - -
One of my favorite whites is *Aporia crataegi*. There are some parts of
western and southern France where the meadows are alive with them in June.
Has anyone tried cultivation of this species or one of its Asiatic
congeners, for ornament? The adults are robust, but the pupae, like other
pierines may be too delicate.
  The larvae are reported to live communally in a silk tent and eat
hawthorn, blackthorn and plum so they would need to be regulated in parts
of the country where *Prunus* is a crop. Elsewhere *Crataegus* is an
ubiquitous available foodplant. In the northwestern part of its natural
range it has had a history of cyclical boom and busts, perhaps parasite or
disease induced. Does anyone have a reference to studies on its population
fluctuation in Britain?
........Chris Durden


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