Cabbage White

The cabbage white is a small member of the whites and sulphurs family (Pieridae), native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa but now established across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and other regions following accidental introduction, making it one of the most widespread and commonly seen butterflies in temperate gardens worldwide. Its abundance and close association with cultivated cole crops make it one of the most familiar butterflies to gardeners.

The species is closely tied to plants in the mustard family, especially cultivated cabbage, kale, broccoli, and related vegetables, as well as many wild mustards, which serve as host plants for its caterpillars. This close relationship with agricultural brassicas is the source of both its common name and its wide recognition among home gardeners.

Adult cabbage whites are frequent, unmistakable visitors to garden flower beds, flitting low and steadily over open ground, and their caterpillars, sometimes called imported cabbageworms, are equally familiar as small, well-camouflaged green larvae found on the undersides of cabbage-family leaves.

• Wingspan roughly 3.2–4.7 cm; wings are mostly white with black-tipped forewing corners.
• Females typically show two round black spots on each forewing, while males usually show only one.
• Underside of the hindwing and forewing tip is pale yellowish-green, providing camouflage when the wings are closed.
• Flight is low, fluttery, and somewhat erratic compared to the more powerful flight of larger butterflies.
• Lookalikes: sulphur butterflies are yellow rather than white; other small white species elsewhere in the world can look similar and are best told apart by exact spot pattern and host plant.

Extremely common in gardens, vegetable farms, meadows, roadsides, vacant lots, and other open, sunny, often human-altered habitats across its now near-global temperate range. Adults are active from spring through fall, with multiple overlapping generations in warmer regions, and can often be seen even in cooler weather compared to many other butterflies. It thrives particularly wherever cultivated or wild mustard-family plants are present.

Adults feed on nectar from a wide variety of garden and wild flowers and fly with a characteristic low, fluttering, somewhat weaving flight pattern close to the ground. Caterpillars feed on the leaves of cabbage-family plants, chewing ragged holes and often resting along leaf veins where their green color blends in with the foliage. Because of their abundance on cultivated brassicas, the caterpillars are widely recognized by gardeners as a common leaf-feeding presence on cole crops.

Complete metamorphosis with several generations per year in most temperate climates. Females lay small, bullet-shaped yellow eggs singly on the leaves of host plants; caterpillars hatch as tiny green larvae that grow through several molts while feeding, developing a faint yellow stripe down the back. Pupation occurs in an angular greenish or brownish chrysalis attached to a stem, wall, or other nearby surface, with adults emerging after one to two weeks in warm weather. The species typically overwinters as a chrysalis in colder regions.