About Neophasia menapia (Felder & Felder, 1859)
Neophasia menapia, commonly known as the pine white, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Pieridae. This species is distributed in the western United States and southern British Columbia, Canada. Its wings are mostly white, marked with black veins and black wing bars. Neophasia menapia is similar in appearance to Neophasia terlooii, and their geographic ranges only overlap in New Mexico. The wingspan of this butterfly ranges from 42 to 50 millimetres, or 1.7 to 2.0 inches. Its natural habitats include pine forests and Douglas fir forests in northern coastal California. The known host plants for Neophasia menapia are Pinus species, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Tsuga heterophylla, Abies balsamea, Abies grandis, and Picea sitchensis. Adult pine whites feed on flower nectar from rabbitbrush, other yellow-flowered composites, and monarda. Neophasia menapia is a univoltine species that lays its eggs on live pine needles, as documented in the scientific research paper Phylogeography and the population genetics of pine butterflies, which describes differences between species in the genus Neophasia.
