Large cabbage white butterfly

The Large cabbage white butterfly's is a species of butterfly known by the scientific name is Pieris brassicae.

Body Design


The Large cabbage white butterfly's appearance is similar to Pieris rapae (Small White). However, they have black tips(covers the end of something)on their wings. The black spot is more dark and bigger than the small White. They have a wingspan(the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing)of 58mm~65mm. The male butterflies have black tips on the off-white fore wing(the anterior pair of an insect's two pairs of wings), and the female butterflies have two black dots on the fore wing. Also, both sexes have off-white hind wings(the posterior pair of an insect's two pairs of wings). However, there is no pattern on the hind wing. The back of the hind wing looks more green than on the top of the hind wing. Therefore, when they rest,the green color helps them good with camouflaging. The black pattern is more dark when they are breeding season. Female butterflies are usually bigger than male butterflies.

Life Cycle
They have a four stage life cycle. They are egg-caterpillar(larval)-pupal-adult. At first, the female butterfly lays yellow eggs on the top of plants, she lays about 50 to 100. The life cycle begins when they hatch. 10 to 15 days later,the egg will become a larvae. Their bodies look hairy and are yellow or green with black spots. They can grow up to 60 mm long. They start to eat plants, usually cabbage. They are able to change their body color to green because they eat cabbage. The larvae finds a place that is quite or calm and creates a cocoon. When they create a cocoon, they stop eating. After 10 days, it will become a pupa and they experience metamorphosis(something that develops and changes into something completely different). After 20 days, they will be a large cabbage white butterfly and they live for 1~2 months.

Ecology
The Large cabbage white butterfly is a common butterfly, so there are huge numbers of them in the world. They spread out widely around all parts of Europe and all places can be their habitats.Gardeners and farmers don't like the large cabbage white butterfly because they damage their crops. Therefore, they use agricultural chemicals to reduce numbers of the large cabbage white butterflies. As a result, they reduced before than 10 years ago. However, that is not serious for them extinction. When they are young, they eat plants, mostly cabbage. However, they eat mustard growths as well. When they become an adult butterfly, they eat nectar(sweet liquid produced by flowers)in flowers. They migrate from april to october.

Interesting facts


There are two species of cabbage butterflies. One is pieris brassicae(large white), and the other is pieris rapae(small white). They look similar but they are a little bit different. The small white have a wingspan, that can be grow up 30-50 mm long. It is smaller than the large white. Small white have white or off-white wings and with black tips on the forewing. The female butterfly has two black spots on forewing but male butterfly has only one. Both sexes have one black spot on the top of hindwing. However, the large white have nothing on the hindwings.

Video
The Pieris Brassicae Butterfly is a large white Butterfly with white wings and black dots on the fore wings. xxPmTtXWZ4I