Vol. 38 No. 2, 1999

Discovery of a New Pierid Butterfly, Aporia gigantea cheni Hsu and Chou (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), from Taiwan

Yu-Feng Hsu^1,* and Wen-I Chou²

¹Department of Biology, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan 116
²Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 106

Yu-Feng Hsu and Wen-I Chou (1999) A new subspecies of a large-sized pierid butterfly, Aporia gigantea cheni, is described and illustrated based upon material collected from the southern portion of the Central Range of Taiwan. Compared to the nominotypical subspecies of A. gigantea of western China, the new subspecies is darker, smaller, and lacking sexual dimorphism in wing patterns. The discovery of a new subspecies of a large butterfly reveals that the inventory of the butterfly fauna of Taiwan is still far from being complete. This butterfly also serves as a good illustration of zoogeographic disjunction in its distribution.

Key words: Taiwan, China, Disjunction, Lepidoptera, New subspecies.

*Correspondence: Fax: 886-2-29312904. E-mail: t43018@cc.ntnu.edu.tw