The present paper reports the chromosomes of 15 Japanese species of the Pieridae with particular concern to the systematic relationship among them. The numerical and morphological relations here established are referable to Table 1 and Figures 1-32. The author wishes to deal with some cytotaxonomical evidence in the following.
The chromosome number in the studied species of the Pieridae shows a wide range of variation ranging from 17 to 61 in haploid; between these extremes the following numbers, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 and 54, occur. This is interesting in comparison with the situation cccurring in the Papilionidae, since in the latter the chromosome number is not generally less than 30.
The chromosomes of the butterflies so far reported are uniformly dot-like in form, being rather smooth in outline, while the chromosomes of
Leptidea amurensis are characterized by a somewhat angular outline. Further, there occur two “Sammelchromosomen” in this species; probably the formation of the “Sammelchromosomen” can be accounted for on the basis of the union of some dot-like elements.
It is interesting to know that
Leptidea morsei and
Leptidea sinapis are distinctly different in their chromosome constitution.
Leptidea morsei was found to possess 54 dot-like chromosomes (
n), while in
Leptidea sinapis Lorkovic ('41) reported an individual variation of the chromosome number ranging from 28 to 41, together with the occurrence of the chromosomes of V- and cylinder-like shape. The chromosomes of
Leptidea morsei are identical with those of
Leptidea morsei major (Lorkovic '50) in general appearance. It is further noticeable that
Leptidea amurensis shows the haploid number of 61 which is highest in the Pieridae so far as the observations go.
A chromosomal dimorphism was found to occur in
Pieris rapae: there are two groups of animals, one having
n, 26 and the other
n, 25. The dimorphism is due to the presence of a m-chromosome: the individuals having
n, 26 contain a m-chromsome in the haploid set. They are rather frequent in occurrence showing the frequency of 60%.
Pieris melete and
P. napi are closely related in many morphological characters, while the chromosomes of these two species differ from each other. The former species is characterized by the basic number of 27 (
n), though there is a variation of the chromosome number ranging from 27 to 31 due to the inclusion of the supernumerary chromosomes which vary from 1 to 4.
Pieris napi shows a constant number of
n, 26.
It was found that the species of
Colias and
Gonepteryx are characterized by the haploid number of 31 respectively, while those of
Aporia show
n, 25. No such a constancy in number occur in the species belonging to
Leptidea, Eurema, and
Pieris.
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