Cabbage White Butterfly

The Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae) caterpillar (larva) is initially pale yellow with fine hairs, before turning green. It has narrow yellow lines on its body which are sometimes hard to see. The upper side of the butterfly is white with a black tip on its fore-wing and a black patch on the front edge of its hind-wing. The caterpillar is about 3.5 cm and the butterfly is up to 5 cm (wingspan). Caterpillars eat mainly the leaves of cultivated and introduced plants in the family Brassicaceae (such as cabbage and cauliflower), and can be a major pest of these crops. Adults feed on nectar from a variety of plants.