Cabbage White
Pieris rapae
Description 1 1/4-1 7/8" (32-48 mm). Milk-white above with charcoal FW tips, black submarginal sex spots on FW (1 on male, 2 on female) and on HW costa. Below, FW tip and HW pale to bright mustard-yellow, speckled with grayish spots and black FW spots.
Similar Species All whites of similar size have dark-scaled veins on HW below, or lack yellow there or gray on FW tips.
Life Cycle Egg yellowish, vase-shaped. Caterpillar, to 3/4" (19 mm), bright green with yellowish back stripes and side stripes; covered with short pile. Chrysalis, to 3/4" (19 mm), speckled, green or tan. Many crucifers (Brassicaceae) acceptable as
host plants, as well as nasturtiums (Tropaeolaceae) and sometimes other plants.
Flight 3 or more broods; from last to first hard frost.
Habitat Gardens, agricultural and abandoned fields, cities, plains, foothills; wandering virtually everywhere except where the most extreme climatic conditions exist.
Range All of North America south of Canadian Taiga, including Hawaii. Native to Eurasia.
Discussion Exceedingly well known to most gardeners, the Cabbage White has spread throughout North America after its unintentional introduction to Quebec in 1860. No other butterfly is so successful over such a great variety and expanse of landscape. Some of the pierid emigrants may temporarily exceed this species in numbers, but they are neither as persistent nor as widespread. Its spectacular success has been blamed - probably erroneously - for the decline or retreat of some of its indigenous relatives. Farmers and gardeners consider the Cabbage White a pest, so great is its appetite for cabbages, radishes, and nasturtiums.
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