Pieris virginiensis

Pieris virginiensis, the West Virginia white, is a butterfly found in North America in the Great Lakes states, along the Appalachians from New England to Alabama, and in southern Ontario. They are often found in moist deciduous forests. Forestry, development, and a highly-invasive species that it confuses with its host plant (Cardamine) are causing this species to decline. Two members of the Cardamine genus Cardamine diphyla and Cardamine concatenata are reported to be its host plants in Alabama.

This small, white semi-transparent butterfly may have no yellowish tinge, but it can have tawny or gray color and hazy brown or pale gray color in the hindwing vein underside. There is only one generation that is produced each year, and they are active adults for a short period of about one month, typically early spring (April or May), when they emerge despite potential dry springs. When P. Virginiensis experience dry springs, they often do not survive as they rely on the prosperity of their native host plant for oviposition.