The hawthorn puzzle! This white and elegant butterfly loves the countryside and its favourite plant is - in fact - the hawthorn, so much so that it bears its name (crataegi).
Its distribution is, however, a real enigma for entomologists because the number of specimens drops or grows without apparent regularity. One wonders whether this little joke is a characteristic of the species, something like… a problem whose very assumptions make it difficult to solve, in short: what the Greeks would call an "aporia"... Wait, did we just say "Aporia"?
This species, part of the Pieridae family, is a perfect example of how you don't need to be showy to attract the observer's attention. Its wings are completely white and the ribs, black in the male and tending to brown in the female, stand out. It can be found between May and July in flowery places in the countryside, especially in the hills. It used to be seen also in flat areas, but in the last decades, there has been a tendency to a progressive withdrawal towards higher altitude areas. It is a Palearctic species, widespread throughout central-southern Europe, Mediterranean Africa and temperate Asia up to the coasts of Korea and Japan.