Anthocharis midea midea (Hubner, 1809)

Pavulaan, Harry, 2024, Notes on North American Butterflies. 1., The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 11 (8), pp. 1-25 : 22

Anthocharis midea midea /texana intermediates

– This region displays the broadest range of polytypic individuals. Male apical patches may be small, large, or intermediate. Adults of both sexes may display either black ( midea ) or white (texana) wing bases.

Lastly, females displaying the orange-tinted forewing apical area do not precisely correspond to the above variants. Gatrelle (1998) believed that females possessing the orange-tinted apex are confined to the southeastern coastal region. With further sampling and updated imagery, these have been observed range wide in subspecies midea and annickae, but have not yet been documented in subspecies texana. Orange-tinted females are apparently more frequent within the range of polytypic ssp. midea ( Fig. 9 ). The documented presence of orange-tinted females centered in the region around the state of Maryland is very likely the result of a greater number of collectors and photographers concentrated in that region. This indicates that orange-tinted females are likely present anywhere within the range of ssp. annickae .

It can be concluded that A. midea is a highly polytypic form-complex. Nominotypical A. m. midea is a polytypic, variable “subspecies”, occupying the central portion of the species range. The large-patched males appear more frequently along the Georgia and South Carolina coastal region but also frequently within a patchwork of colonies as far inland as Oklahoma and Nebraska. Subspecies annickae is best restricted to the northeastern region where only the small-patched variants occur, to the exclusion of intermediate or large-patched males (except for rare aberrant individuals). Subspecies texana is restricted to the southwestern portion of the species range, where individuals lack the dorsal dark basal scales and males bear small apical patches to the exclusion of intermediate or large-patched males (though aberrants have been documented). There is a very broad area from Kansas to Mississippi where texana and midea variants intergrade, but might be considered within polytypic subspecies midea . In this intergrade region, individuals with light wing bases are more frequent toward the west, and dark wing-base individuals are more frequent toward the east. I propose no changes in subspecies designations, rather suggesting that the concept of subspecies stands to be redefined in the case of A. midea , to reflect the distribution of the discussed variant forms.

Figures

Fig. 9. Distribution of nominotypical massasoit phenotype (ORANGE). Complete range of P. massasoit is shown as GRAY counties. Inset shows range in Ontario, Canada.