(Hübner, 1804)
Portuguese Dappled White
Description:
This butterfly owes its specific name to the River Tagus in Portugal, along the banks of which it was first found.
The Portuguese Dappled White is found on warm, dry rocky places with patches of flower-rich grassy vegetation, in dry scrub, and on abandoned agricultural land. Various crucifers are used as food plant, such as candytufts (Iberis spp.), including I. ciliata, I. saxatilis and Annual Candytuft (I. amara), and buckler mustards (Biscutella spp.). The caterpillars eat the ovaries and flowers.
It has one brood a year and hibernates as a chrysalis.
Habitat:
Evergreen woodland
Fallow land and waste places
Dry siliceous grasslands
Dry calcareous grasslands
Phrygana vegetation
Sclerophyllous scrub
Inland sand-dunes
Similar species:
Euchloe simplonia
Euchloe ausonia
Euchloe insularis
Euchloe crameri