Pieris bryoniae (Hubner, 1806) Dark-veined White, Bergweibling, Pieride da la bryone, Белянка бриония, Բրիոնիա ճերմակաթիթեռ
Distribution and biological peculiarities in Armenia: The species is distributed in Central and South Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Central and Eastern Asia. Armenia is inhabited by subspecies P. b. turcica Eitschberger & Hesselbarth, 1977, which lives in all the high-mountains located at elevation above 2500 m a.s.l., except the mountain Aragats, where it is replaced by another high-mountain specialist – Pieris bowdeni. Although various Brassicaceae are listed as the species’ host plant, in Armenia it is recorded growing on Arabis caucasica only. Despite the fact of living in the area with short summer, the Dark-veined White gives two generations per year, having first generation on wing during June, and the second – from mid July till mid August.
Population dynamics: The species can be considered as quite common in the typical habitat, with the stable population trend during 2003-2013 (p>0.05). Although many habitats of the species are used as pastures, it appears that the grazing behavior of livestock in high mountain meadows – is the factor that plays major role, as the livestock selects at first the grasses and legume plants, which are abundant in the meadow part of the habitat, thus ignoring the Arabis caucasica, which grows among big rocks in screes and taluses.
Conservation measures: The species is included in the European Red List as Least Concern, and the preliminary assessment of its conservation status for Armenia suggests the same one. At current, only few patches of the species distribution range are covered by Protected Areas and Emerald Sites, but more – by Prime Butterfly Areas.