Aporia potanini Alphéraky (Lepidoptera, Pieridae), the oldest fossil record of extant butterfly species

The genus Aporia is a group of butterflies distributed throughout the Palearctic region. A fossil forewing from the caldera lake deposits of the Teragi Group (ca. 2.8–2.2 Ma: Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene) is described and assigned to the extant species Aporia potanini Alphéraky. The fossil provides direct evidence that Aporia potanini was historically distributed in Japan, at the eastern margin of the Palearctic, and that the species was present at least by the Late Pliocene. This represents the oldest known fossil record of extant butterfly species.