All insects used in this work were from the collection of Pieniny National
Park (specimens were collected in years 1991–2007). Butterflies
were collected from the natural environment, in the course of themonitoring program, being a part of the P. apollo protection and saving
procedures, as well as from the population reared in semi-natural conditions.
The permission for the use of this material have been obtained
from the Director of Pieniny Natonal Park (permission no. PB-5232-
24/07, topic ID: p0748). For experiments, 7 specimens of Pieris rapae,
5 of Pieris napi, and 32 of P. apollo were studied. Among the P. apollo individuals,
9 had normal wings, 10 had deformed wings, 5 had reduced
wings, and 8 had extremely reduced wings. Photographs of examples
of individuals from each group are shown in Fig. 1.