Elodina perdita Miskin, 1889
Coastal Pearl-white
 PIERINAE,   PIERIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

This Caterpillar is known to feed on :

  • Wild Orange ( Capparis sepiaria, CAPPARACEAE ).

    Elodina perdita
    (Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

    The upper surfaces of the wings of the adult butterfly are white with black tips to the forewings. The undersides are white with grey forewing tips, and a pale yellow suffusion toward the base of each forewing. The butterfly has a wingspan of about 4 cms.

    Elodina perdita
    underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

    The species is found in the tropics in

  • New Guinea,

    and in the tropical north of Australia in

  • Queensland.
    There it breeds in the coastal rainforest adjacent to Melaleuca swamps between Ingham and Mackay. This habitat is seriously threatened, so this species is also under threat.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 318-319.

    William Henry Miskin,
    Note on some undescribed Australian Lepiodoptera (Rhopalocera),
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland,
    Volume 6, Part 5 (1889), p. 263.

    previous
    back
    caterpillar
    Australian
    Australian Butterflies
    butterflies
    Australian
    home
    Lepidoptera
    Australian
    Australian Moths
    moths
    next
    next
    caterpillar

    (updated 1 January 2012, 29 December 2023)