Cabbage White Butterfly

Insect

A garden beauty, a leafy plant's bane

Who am I?

Behold, the Cabbage White Butterfly, a creature of stark beauty and dubious reputation! Flitting through the sun-drenched garden, it seems an innocent delight. But ask any self-respecting Nettle or Yarrow how they feel about this innocent, and you might get a different answer. For while the Marmalade Hoverfly might happily sip nectar alongside it, the Cabbage White's larval form, a ravenous caterpillar, has other ideas.

This winged bandit, also known as Pieris rapae, plays a crucial, if somewhat unwelcome, role in the grand garden drama. It's a vital food source for the ever-vigilant Marmalade Hoverfly, and the Marmalade Hoverfly isn't averse to stringing up an unlucky adult that wanders too close to its web. So, admire its pristine wings, but remember, every creature has its place, even if that place is at the bottom of the food chain, being chased by a hungry Swift.

Expert Take

Don’t eat me, I’m too spicy!

This name describes both the small white Pieris rapae and the large white Pieris brassicacea, both associated with the cabbages and related plants their caterpillars feed on. The small white is among the top 3 butterflies spotted in London.

It lays single eggs on lots of leaves, and the caterpillars are green to make them hard to spot by predators. If they are found, they release “defensive vomit” – a sulfurous liquid that tastes and smells terrible, to ward off and deter whatever was thinking of eating them…

Large whites are more gregarious, with eggs laid in clusters so that large numbers of their more conspicuous caterpillars can quickly reduce their host plants to spiky skeletons. They too concentrate mustard-flavored sulfurous compounds in order to make themselves unpalatable, bordering on toxic. But in contrast to the green color disguise of small whites, their distinctive black, white, and yellow patterning is a form of warning sign known as aposematism.

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