Orange-tip
The orange-tip is a white butterfly of spring. Only the male has bright orange tips on his front wings, as if he dipped them in paint. Underneath, both have green and white speckled wings that hide them well on white flowers.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The female has no orange at all, so people often mix her up with other white butterflies.
The eggs start out white, turn orange and then brown after a few days.
The mother leaves a special smell on the flower when she lays an egg, so other mothers know it is taken.
A newly hatched caterpillar first eats its own eggshell, and then moves on to the seed pods.
Because springs are getting warmer, it now shows up about 17 days earlier than it used to.
Most asked questions about Orange-tip
?Why do only some orange-tips have orange wings?
Only the males have the orange tips. The females are white with dark wing tips.
?What does an orange-tip caterpillar eat?
Seed pods of plants in the cabbage family, like garlic mustard and cuckooflower.
?When can you see orange-tips?
In spring, flying along hedges, forest edges and damp meadows.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Anthocharis cardamines
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Pieridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Anthocharis cardamines (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 Michael Apel. CC BY 3.0, 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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