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Giant Silk
Moth Survey

WEST VIRGINIA WHITE (Pieris virginiensis)

Identification
Almost completely white above with some gray scaling on the forewing. Whitish below with no yellow wash. Veins on the underside of the hindwing are faintly outlined in pale gray scales. It is often confused with the Mustard White, which by contrast shows dark green-black veins on the underside of the hindwing during the spring flight.

Massachusetts Butterfly Club photographs

Kaufman's Butterflies of North America, page 46
Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars, plate 8

Habitat in Vermont
Rich, hardwood forests

Host Plant
Crinkleroot (Cardamine diphylla), Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)

Adult Food Preferences
Flower nectar from Toothworts (Dentaria sp.), Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), Violets (Viola sp.), and other plants

U.S. Distribution

VBS Distribution


VBS Flight Period


Conservation Status
A species ofrelatively undisturbed, mature forest. Declining due to timbering, development, and spread of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Once a colony has been extirpated in an isolated woodlot, adults will not recolonize it because they will not fly across open areas. It has been listed as a species of special conservation concern in Vermont since 1990.

Notes
Get to mature hardwoods with spring wildflowers early in our season. In fact, this is one of our few butterflies that only flies in the woods. Our other, more common veined white, Mustard White, does fly in woods, but it has distinct dark veins in its first brood (when it may be confused with West Virginia White). West Virginia White always has faint gray scaling along the veins. And it only flies early, largely gone for the year by the second week in June. Their flight is slow and close to the ground. Follow a woodland stream until you find the host plant — and the butterfly.

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