Wood White (Leptidea sinapis) and Eastern Wood White (Leptidea duponcheli)
2009 photos highlighted in yellow. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
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| 2553_male_Var_11Jul06 - sinapis | 6325_male_Var_3Jun07 - sinapis | 12532_male_Isere_10Jul08 - sinapis |
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| 14739_male_Var_22Apr09 - sinapis | 18007_male_Isere_11Jul09 - sinapis | 12746_male_Isere_11Jul08 - sinapis |
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| 14480_female_Rhone_12Apr09 - sinapis | 10387_female_Alpes Maritimes_9May08 - sinapis | 7219_sex?_Var_20Jun07 - duponcheli? |
Sinapis is widespread and common in southern France and often quite easy to tell in flight as it has a slow, floppy flight. I'm not quite sure how it stays airborne sometimes. Illustrations generally show the unh as being dusted with grey scales in a characteristic sinapis pattern, to a greater or lesser extent according to sex (females more heavily dusted) and brood (first brood more heavily dusted). However, in Var I find the second brood unh to be almost unmarked with grey scales and to have a distinct pale yellow tinge. These are supposed to be indicators of duponcheli, although these individuals are clearly sinapis. The antennal club is brown in duponcheli and white in sinapis. There is another differentiator only visible on the upperside - see 7219 below.
Some sinapis may actually be Real's Wood White (L. reali), a species so similar to sinapis that only an examination of the genitalia can tell them apart for certain. There are some alleged external differences and I will be studying this in the coming weeks.
2553: has a very pale yellow unh and is unmarked by grey scales, although there is a quite heavy dusting on the basal end of the costa, indicating sinapis rather than duponcheli, and this absence of unh grey scales is normally indicative of duponcheli, but I'm reasonably sure it isn't because the central part of the tip of the antennal club is white - conclusive for sinapis - duponcheli is brown throughout. Also the dark upperside apical mark extends to the margin indicating sinapis, which is not so for duponcheli. I would guess it's a male based on the body length, just visible, as well as the strength of the apical mark and the absence of unh grey dusting, both of which indicate male. At first sight the general look might indicate duponcheli, so this does show the variation that can occur and how confusing it makes the ID process. Altitude 450m.
6325: a second brood male. The unh grey markings of the Var specimens are very light, and the general colouring underside very much yellower than as shown in T&L, and on this basis it looks very much like the illustration of the much rarer Eastern Wood white (L. duponcheli), although I am fairly certain it is sinapis because the white tips of the antennae are clearly visible. This just serves to demonstrate how difficult it is to identify some species from (very good) illustrations in books; it often needs two or more indicators to be certain. I like the way it is standing on tiptoes to avoid the wet mud. Altitude 200m.
12532: an example of the variation of grey dusting. A summer brood male. Altitude 1120m.
14739: a first brood male, I suspect, based on its apparent taking salts and rather lighter dusting of unh grey scales. Altitude 220m.
18007: a second brood male, based on the lighter dusting of grey unh scales. Altitude 1120m.
12746: an unusually large group of males taking salts from damp sandy soil at a river's edge. Altitude 1120m.
14480: a first brood female, I think, based on the very heavy dusting of grey unh scales. Altitude 320m.
10387: a heavily dusted first brood female. Altitude 1000m.
7219: I was trying to get a lucky snap of the upperside of this slow-flying "sinapis" upperside caught in flight. However, on closer inspection, I wonder if it might be duponcheli for several reasons: the upperside is very white and the black upf apical marks are very small; the underside of the antennal tip shows no sign of white (which would indicate sinapis - c.f. 6325) although the detail level is not good enough to be conclusive here; most significantly, the upf vein 1 in the basal area shows a very clear "hump" (arrowed in the illustration below, but much clearer in the enlarged version) and this is considered to be definitive (if rarely seen in the wild) evidence of duponcheli; the sinapis vein is much flatter, and on this basis, I would tend to say 7219 is duponcheli, but further evidence (the unh of the first brood is very strongly green - this should be obvious in flight) is needed to be 100% certain. I did revisit the site in April 2008 and 2009 but did not get a good enough view of the few Leptidea to draw any conclusions; all I can say is that I did not see anything that could be said to be duponcheli. Altitude 140m.
10387_female_Alpes Maritimes_9May08
