Large white
The large white is a big white butterfly with black tips on its front wings. You often see it fluttering over vegetable gardens. Its caterpillars are yellow and green with black dots, and they love cabbage.
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Fun facts
You can tell a female because she has two black spots on each front wing. The male does not.
Underneath, its wings are pale green. When it rests with its wings closed, it hides well among leaves.
Its eggs are pale yellow at first and turn black just before the caterpillars hatch.
It is a strong flier. Every year many of them fly across the sea from mainland Europe to Britain.
When it turned up in New Zealand, people were paid 10 dollars for each one they caught, and soon it was gone from there again.
Most asked questions about Large white
?What does the large white caterpillar eat?
It eats the leaves of cabbage and related plants.
?How can you tell a male from a female large white?
The female has two black spots on each front wing, and the male has none.
?How big is a large white butterfly?
Its wings measure about 5 to 6.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
Myth buster
Myth: The large white is a cabbage moth.
Truth: No. People sometimes call it that, but it is a butterfly, not a moth.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pieris brassicae
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Pieridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- Cabbage butterfly, Cabbage white, Large cabbage white, Great white butterfly
Where the facts come from
- Pieris brassicae (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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