Pieridae

Pieridae is a family of butterflies containing roughly seventy-six genera and about 1,100 species, found mainly in tropical Africa and Asia with some species reaching northern North America and Eurasia. Members are typically white, yellow or orange with black markings, colors produced by pigments derived from waste products in the body, and the sexes often differ in the extent of black marking. Both sexes have well developed forelegs and forked tarsal claws, and the pupa is held by a silk girdle at the first abdominal segment. The common English word butterfly is thought to derive from this family, from the brimstone species that early British naturalists called the butter-coloured fly. Some larvae, notably the large white and small white, are serious agricultural pests of brassica crops.