pierid

[ pahy-er-id, pahy-er- ]

adjective

1. belonging or pertaining to the Pieridae, a family of butterflies comprising the whites, sulfurs, etc.

noun

1. Also called pi·er·i·dine [pahy-, er, -i-dahyn, -din]. any member of the butterfly family Pieridae.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pierid¹

1880–85; < New Latin Pieridae, apparently by haplology from *Pierididae, equivalent to Pierid- , stem of Pieris a genus (< Greek Pīerís, singular of Pīerídes a name for the Muses; Pierides ) + -idae -id ²

Example Sentences

Their natural situation will be among the Pierid�, with whose general habit they accord.

From Project Gutenberg

The genus I have now placed it in belongs to the Coliad�, and appears to connect that family with the Pierid�: their distinctions are obviously marked and very constant in all the species I have yet seen, and which are tropical: of these, seven I discovered in Brazil; three or four more are natives of the southern extremity of North America; and Dr. Horsfield has four or five from Java.

From Project Gutenberg

The former are all provided with peculiar spines, and the latter are all more or less angular, and are all suspended to a silken carpet by means of hooks at the tip of the abdomen, and have no belt as we have observed in the case of the Pierid�.

From Project Gutenberg

The chrysalides are generally attached by the 'tail,' and further secured by a silken cord round the body, as we have already observed in the case of the Pierid�.

From Project Gutenberg

But our Brimstone Butterfly possesses another very prominent feature in which it differs from all the other British Pierid�, and that is the conspicuous projecting angles of both fore and hind wings.

From Project Gutenberg