Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi)

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2022 photographs highlighted in blue. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

5911_male_Var_27May07 32034_male_Var_6May13 43064_male_Côte-d'Or_02Jun17 5859_male_Var_27May07
12529_males?_Isère_10Jul08 33210_male_Alpes-de-Haute-Provence_1Jul13 48803_male_Haute-Savoie_26Jul21 48442_pair_Pyrénées-Orientales_13Jul21
48795_female_Haute-Savoie_26Jul21 42581_female_Var_09May17 5889_pair_Var_27May07 32669_larva_Côte-d'Or_14Jun13

Crataegi is a large butterfly and very gregarious, especially when puddling as 12529 shows - there were 50 or more puddling at one very small area, apparently no different to any other adjacent damp areas. When disturbed, they all fly up as if a flock of birds, and re-settle again in the same spot often landing on top of each other. It's spectacle you could watch for hours.

 

I can remember the first time I saw crataegi in the Queyras National Park in 2000 and I perched dangerously leaning over a cliff to get a postage-stamp size picture. It could have easily been my epitaph. Since then I have seen it in thousands in many places and the Dordogne in particular. It also seems to like the medium altitudes of many mountain areas, and I have found it in huge numbers between around 1000m and 1300m, although it does occur at higher altitudes.

It used to occur in south east England (Kent in particular) but disappeared around 1911 for reasons that are still not understood, but may be climatic, related to a series of poor wet summers.

 

It is quite an attractive butterfly when fresh but tends to have a rather waxy, yellowish and appearance as it loses its scales, when it can become almost transparent without apparently losing any of its flight ability. The male appears to almost pure white, whereas the female has a yellow-brown colouration.

 

A superb video of the life-cycle of crataegi has been produced by Filming VarWild and can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExcXuU3GW4M
ref sex

observations

alt. m
5911 M

I believe this to be a male based on the strong discoidal mark at the external edge of the upf cell, even though the body shape suggests female.

780
32034 M a male, beautifully pure white when fresh. 20
43064 M a male, a rare opportunity for an open-wing shot. 370
5859 M

a male. Note the tiny fly at the edge of the hindwing. Big fleas have little fleas, etc.

780
12529 M

a large group of males puddling in sandy soil at the edge of a river. There appeared to be no difference in the soil, but all the crataegi were grouped in this one area, none outside it.

1120
33210 M a small group puddling. A dead golden skipper can be seen in the water in the background. 1080
48803 M a male, included here even though very similar to other undersides as it was from a different region. 1400
48442 PAIR a mating pair, the female most likely above (as it usually the case), although there seems to be no trace of yellow on the female underside. 1590
48795 F a female underside, with the usual rather yellow-brown tinge. It has a strange ring of something yellow just at the rear of the cell, but even on close-up there is no obvious clue as to what this is. 1400
42581 F a freshly-emerged female, drying its wings after emerging from the the pupal case. Surprisingly, it does not have black veins, but whether they darken after a while after emergence or whether this female just didn't have black veins, is not clear. 220
5889 PAIR

a mating pair, the female on the right being quite brown compared to the almost pure white male.

780
32669 LARVA a larva, about to pupate, with the silken girdle visible in the middle. 430

 

5911_male_Var_27May07

 

32034_male_Var_6May13

 

43064_male_Côte-d'Or_02Jun17

 

5859_male_Var_27May07

 

12529_males?_Isère_10Jul08

 

33210_male_Alpes-de-Haute-Provence_1Jul13

 

48803_male_Haute-Savoie_26Jul21

 

48442_pair_Pyrénées-Orientales_13Jul21

 

48795_female_Haute-Savoie_26Jul21

 

42581_female_Var_09May17

 

5889_pair_Var_27May07

 

32669_larva_Côte-d'Or_14Jun13