The immature stages, larval food plants and biology of neotropical mistletoe butterflies. I. The Hesperocharis group (Pieridae: Anthocharidini)

The Neotropical Region contains the highest diversity of the cosmopolitan family Pieridae in terms of generic and species richness, yet the basic natural history of many taxa from Central and South America remains unknown or poorly documented. We provide an overview of the morphology, larval food plants and general biology of the immature stages of the Hesperocharis group, one of two distantly related clades of Neotropical pierids that specialize on 'mistletoes' (Santalales). Of the four genera recognized in the group, detailed descriptions are given and compared for two of these, Hesperocharis and Mathania. Eggs are laid in clusters, the larvae are gregarious or semi-gregarious but pupate singly, and the pupae may undergo winter diapause in temperate latitudes. Only fragmentary information is available for the relict genus Eroessa, and the life history of Cunizza remains unknown. Optimization of available food plant data in the context of a recent molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for the Hesperocharis group suggests the ancestor of Hesperocharis + Mathania evolved on aerial-stem hemiparasites in the family Loranthaceae. Confirmation of the larval food plant of Eroessa (reputedly Asteraceae); however, is required to reconstruct the ancestral food plant of the Hesperocharis group and to trace the evolutionary pathway of host shifts within the Anthocharidini.