Anteos and Gonepteryx comparison

luna moth · Dec 27th 2021

Hello,

I have been working and studying with Pieridae for a while and I find them very interesting. I have had one big question for a while and I was wondering if any of you have worked with them and can answer this for me. Gonepteryx is a genus I’m sure anyone from Europe is familiar with. There is plenty of information on Gonepteryx that I could find.

Anteos is a different story. I can barely find any publications on this species other then the extreme basics like: host plant, range, and wing span. Im very curious about how are these 2 genus related. The adults of this species look very similar. They both have the English name “Angled Sulphur.” G. rhami and A. maerula both share the name “Brimstone.” Do these species share any relation other than being Sulphurs? Are there life stages similar?

Regards,

Ethan

I have also had both species- G. rhami and A. clorinde.

bellargus · Dec 29th 2021

Based on some broader genetic studies within the Lepidoptera, Anteos is placed more closely to the genus Colias and Catopsilia https://tree.opentreeoflife.or…13.4@ott474704/Coliadinae. Gonepteryx is placed as an outgroup. Sort of what you would expect with Gonepteryx being a more European/Palearctic species and Colias being distributed over the Palearctic region as well as in the Americas. They are certainly related (as it stands they share the same subfamily), but as it seems not as closely as one would expect from their appearance. Their resemblance is probably in parts due to convergent evolution (they probably both imitate a leaf of some sort). Their caterpillars to me look a lot more like the ones of Colias, but then Gonepteryx caterpillars don't look wildly different https://www.scielo.br/j/rbent/…VxBNcYnCXYSzFxJS/?lang=pt. Most publications I could find seem to be from Brazil or other South American countries. If you happen to speak Portuguese or Spanish you maybe want to look into that.

Greetings Dennis

luna moth · Dec 29th 2021

Hello Dennis,

Thanks so much for this!

Anteos I new is closely related to Colias and Phoebis. Thanks for this information. I just thought it was interesting how these seemingly distant species look so similar.

Regards,

Ethan

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Anteos and Gonepteryx comparison

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