Whites

The family Pieridae includes the white butterflies. All four butterflies included here are common and often seen in gardens.

The white butterflies are the most conspicuous of all our butterflies. This is not only because of their colour which brightly reflects the sun light, but their shear numbers making them an extremely common occurrence in gardens.

Butterflies as a whole have had a good press loved by all, this is not so with the whites. The problem is not with the adults but the damage done by the caterpillars. As the species look alike in flight this has unfortunately led the public to take the group as a whole as pests. This is a misnomer as only two species the large and small white are pests. This has led to the maligning of the green veined white and the female orange tip which are not pest species.

  Large White Pieris brassica

  Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines

  Small White Pieris rapae

  Green Veined White Pieris napi  

Large White Pieris brassica

This is the most common butterfly seen in towns. The species is very adaptive and the caterpillars have a wide range of food plants, this together with their numbers makes them unpopular with gardeners. The damage can be severe in gardens where there is a vegetable patch, as they specifically relish brassicas. This association has given them the common name of large cabbage white.

There can be three broods, depending on the weather. They will keep breeding until it worsens, the last caterpillar brood is usually killed by the cold.

Fortunately numbers are kept in check by heavy predation by other insects. This is to such a degree that their numbers are severely decimated before they reach adulthood.

However each year the numbers are heavily supplemented by migrations from Europe.

Photograph by Alan Griffiths

Large whites are prolific breeders, the eggs are laid under leaves in clusters of up to a hundred. In a vegetable patch the butterflies will flitter from plant to plant, every plant eventually ending up with an infestation.

On hatching the caterpillars group together, but as they grow they move apart ultimately becoming solo. An infested patch is easy to spot, the plants become decimated, the leaves are eventually stripped back to their veins.

The black and yellow caterpillars conspicuously stick out in the green vegetation. They are advertising that they taste foul. The toxins are obtained from the food plants and concentrated in their body tissue.

Caterpillars eventually reach a point when they need to change into a chrysalis. They leave the plant to find a safe place to pupate. It is at this time when it is common to see caterpillars climbing up house walls, the chrysalises being situated under roof and window sills.

Depending on the time of year, the butterfly emerges after a fortnight in summer or it may over winter in the chrysalis.

The female can be distinguished from the male by the two spots on each forewing, which can be seen on both the upperside and underside. In the male these can be seen only on the underside.

Small White Pieris rapae

This common butterfly is very similar to the large white, the main difference is its size. It is not such a destructive pest as its larger relative. It will lay eggs on brassicas but to a lesser degree, the main food plants in gardens tends to be nasturtium and crucifers. Even if eggs are laid on brassicas it is singularly rather than in large clusters, so wholesale destruction of the food plant does not follow, but is only marred by a few holes.

Unlike the large white the caterpillars do not advertise themselves instead depend on camouflage. They are green with a thin yellow line running down the length of their body.

The rest of their life cycle is similar to that of the large white. They can have up to three broods a year and their numbers are buoyed up by migrants. The chrysalis can also hatch in a fortnight or over winter. The summer chrysalis, that take the shorter period tend to be green unlike the brownish overwintering ones.

The sexes can only be distinguished when resting. The males have a spot on both forewings, while the female has an additional two closely placed spots on each forewing.

Green Veined White Pieris napi

A large off white butterfly that can easily be distinguished from the two previous mentioned white species. The wings have blackish green veins which are more pronounced on the underside. The veins break up the white, helping the butterfly to merge into the background vegetation.

In Cornwall the green veined white has two broods supplemented by migration from Europe. The later brood has an even more pronounced veining.

The green veined white is seen in gardens but their main habitat is the countryside.

The butterfly lays its eggs singly. It is not a pest as its green caterpillars’ food plants are crucifers.

Males only have one blurry spot on the each forewing while females have two.

Photograph by Alan Griffiths

Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines

The name implies that the butterfly has bright orange tipped wings, but this is only the case with the male. The female is an off white and from the upperside is hard to distinguish from the other white butterfly species.

Both sexes have a mottled yellow black patterned hindwings' undersides, which easily distinguishes them from the other resident white butterfly species. With the wings pulled together the mottled pattern makes superb camouflage.

There is only one brood a year producing a bluish green caterpillar. The food plants of the orange tip caterpillars are crucifers.