It survives in much of Europe but it has been extinct in Great Britain since about 1925. It was a favourite of Sir Winston Churchill who tried to reintroduce the beautiful species to Southern England where it used to thrive in earlier times. He released colonies of Black veined whites in the large grounds of his home at Chartwell in Kent but they did not survive.
Subspecies include:
Aporia crataegi adherbal (Fruhstorfer, 1910) Japan
Aporia crataegi augusta (Turati, 1905) Sicily
Aporia crataegi augustior (Graves, 1925) – Jordania, Israel
Aporia crataegi banghaasi (Bryk, 1921)
Aporia crataegi basania (Fruhstorfer, 1910) Alps
Aporia crataegi colona (Krulikowsky, 1909) – Russia
Aporia crataegi crataegi (Linnaeus, 1758) Scandinavia
Aporia crataegi fert (Turati & Fiori, 1930) Greece
Aporia crataegi hyalina (Röber, 1907) Asia Minor
Aporia crataegi iranica (Forster, 1939) ( Armenia, Iran, Azerbaïdjan)
Aporia crataegi karavaievi (Krulikowsky, 1926) ( Russia, Ukraina, Balkans )
Aporia crataegi mauretanica (Obethür, 1909) Northern Africa
Aporia crataegi meinhardi (Krulikowsky, 1909) Siberia - Kamchatka Peninsula
Aporia crataegi pellucida (Ruber, 1907) Kopet-Dagh
Aporia crataegi rotunda (Eitschberger, 1971) ( Italy )
Aporia crataegi rutae (Bryk, 1940) ( Spain )
Aporia crataegi sachalinensis (Matsumura, 1925) Sakhalin
Aporia crataegi shugnana (Sheljuzhko, 1925) Pamir
Aporia crataegi tianschanica (Rühl, 1893)
Aporia crataegi transitoria (Lempke, 1974) (Central Europe )
It occurs in open forest, grazing land, orchards. lanes, gardens, meadows and thickets throughout most of Europe, temperate Asia, Korea, and Japan. This species is extinct in the British Isles.
The black -veined white has a wingspan of 51 to 70 mm (2.0 to 2.8 in). Females are commonly larger than males. The upperside of both forewings and hindwings is a translucent white boldly veined with black.
