Pereute Herrich-Schäffer, 1867

Braby, Michael F. & Nishida, Kenji, 2010, The immature stages, larval food plants and biology of Neotropical mistletoe butterflies (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). II. The Catasticta group (Pierini: Aporiina), Journal of Natural History 44 (29 - 30), pp. 1831-1928 : 1849-1850

Pereute Herrich-Schäffer, 1867

Pereute is the sister taxon to Leodonta (Braby et al. 2007) and contains nine species (Lamas 2004). It occurs in Central and South America, from southern Mexico ( de la Maza 1987; Salinas et al. 2004) to the Andes of Peru and Bolivia ( D’Abrera 1981) and the Guyana plateau of Venezuela ( De Marmels et al. 2003) through Brazil to north-eastern Argentina ( Klimaitis 2000; Lamas 2004). Only two species occur in Central America, one of which is endemic to the area. All species occur in montane habitats, including cloud forest, from 800 m to 2500 m a.s.l. ( Salazar 2004b). Many of the species are involved in complex mimicry rings with Heliconius butterflies ( Nymphalidae ) ( Punnett 1915).

Schultze-Rhonhof (1933), DeVries (1986, 1987), Brown (1992), Klimaitis (2000) and Salazar (2004b) all made general reference to mistletoes comprising the larval food plants of Pereute , but surprisingly few details have been published of the actual species involved. Specific details of the larval food plants have been recorded for only two species of Pereute ; these plants include Struthanthus (Loranthaceae) ( Guagliumi 1967; Alvarez and Alvarez 1984; Briceño 1988), Antidaphne (Santalaceae) ( DeVries 1986, 1987) and Phoradendron (Viscaceae) ( Zenner and Borrero 1992). Non-mistletoe records from other plant families are considered to be erroneous ( Beccaloni et al. 2008) and most likely represent the mistletoe host tree on which the larvae frequently pupate. For example, Jörgensen (1932) noted that larvae of P. swainsoni (Gray, 1832) had been found resting gregariously on the trunk of Lauraceae , but Schultze-Rhonhof (1933) and DeVries (1986) argued that the larvae were probably feeding on the leaves of mistletoe parasitizing the tree and that the larvae were using the host tree as a resting place. Klots (1933), Alvarez and Alvarez (1984) and DeVries (1987) crudely illustrated or provided brief notes on the immature stages of P. charops (Boisduval, 1836) (summarized below). For P. swainsoni, Klimaitis (2000: 36) noted that:

Oruga gregaria ± 35 mm, parda con manchas y verrugas verdes; finos y cortos pelos blancos. Se mueve en fila india (oruga processionaria) para comer, dejando en las hojas un brilliante sendero de seda... Crisálida cingulada, pardo oscura, lustrosa. Cabeza con cuernos y abdomen con largas espinas curvadas.

[Larva gregarious more or less 35 mm, red-brown with spots and green bumps; fine and short white hairs. The larvae move in a procession or single file to eat, leaving a shiny silk trail on the leaves... Pupa with silken girdle, dark red-brown, shiny. Head with horns and abdomen with long curved spines.] (Our translation)

In addition to our reared material of the immature stages, we examined a small series of larvae and pupae of P. charops from Mexico preserved in the BMNH and MCZ (summarized below).