Eastern Orange Tip

Anthocharis damone Boisduval, 1836

Status

Description

A medium sized white butterfly with black tips to the forewing upperside, and a marbled green hindwing underside. The upperside and hindwing underside has a distinct yellowish cast. The forewing is very rounded. The males are very distinctive, even in flight, with the large orange-tips to their forewings, and their yellowish cast enables easy separation from A. cardamines. The females could be confused with butterflies in the genera Euchole and Pontia, which also have a marbled green hindwing underside. However, they both don’t have a solid black to the forewing, nor the yellowish cast.

Habitat Requirements

In Corfu, whilst historically this butterfly has been seen at sea level, these days such an occurrence is much rarer. Now it is restricted to the more mountainous regions of the islands and the lowest record submitted to CBC is 644.02 m above sea level (19 April 2019).

Larval Foodplants

Woad Isatis tinctoria.

Observations

It is unusal to find a butterfly restricted to one host plant (monophagus). The reliance of A. damone on this one and only host plant, clearly restricts its distribution to the north eastern slopes of Corfu's uplands, where substantially sized Woad plants can be found. Whilst the EU Red Data Status in 2010 classified this species as of least concern, its limited distribution on Corfu makes it vulnerable in an island context.

It is probable that the life cycle of this butterfly is similar in many respects to that of A. cardamines.

*The information provided in the tables below is based on verified sightings of the Eastern Orange Tip submitted via this website since 1st January 2021.

First and Last Sightings

Year First Last/latest # Days
2023 10/04/2023 27/05/2023 47 days
2022 09/04/2022 17/05/2022 38 days
2021 03/04/2021 19/05/2021 46 days

Number of Observations

Year Number of observations
2023 45
2022 40
2021 33
Grand Total 118

Distribution Map

Distribution maps for this species are currently unavailable.

Flight Times for the Eastern Orange Tip (2023)

The chart below shows flight data by month for 2023 submitted online since 1st January 2023 to 8th June 2023.

Flight Times for the Eastern Orange Tip (All Data)

The chart below shows flight data by month based on all data submitted online since 1st January 2019 to 8th June 2023.

Taxonomy

  • Vernacular/Common Name: Eastern Orange Tip
  • Family: Pieridae (Swainson, 1820)
  • Sub-family: Pierinae (Swainson, 1820)
  • Tribe: Anthocharini (Tutt, 1894)
  • Genus: Anthocharis (Boisduval, Rambur, Dumril & Graslin, 1833)
  • Species: damone Boisduval, 1836

References

For a list of references, please see our bibliography page.