Biogeography and evolution of the female cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae, in the Eurasian continent

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There is an inter-subspecies difference in the ultraviolet (UV) reflection by wings between females of the British and Japanese subspecies of the cabbage butterfly Pieris rapae. To determine where in the Eurasian continent the female with UV-reflecting wings evolved, the female specimens owned by the Natural History Museum in London, UK, and the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Bonn, Germany, were surveyed by photographing them through a UV-transparent filter. The results revealed differences in the UV reflection of wings among the females collected from different locations in and around the Eurasian continent. The females with UV-reflecting wings were observed to originate from rather narrow ranges in the eastern coastal areas of the continent, including East Russia, Korea and East China, while those with UV-absorbing wings were shown to be distributed widely across the Eurasian continent, including the eastern coastal areas inhabited by the females with UV-reflecting wings. This was supported by the results of the investigation in which larvae were reared under the long day photoperiod which cause the UV-reflecting females.