Large White
Pieris brassicae
The caterpillars store toxic mustard oils from their food, rendering them highly distasteful to predatory birds who learn to avoid their bright warning colors.
- Scientific name
- Pieris brassicae
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Arthropoda › Insecta › Lepidoptera › Pieridae › Pieris
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Agricultural land, gardens, meadows, and coastal cliffs.
- Diet
- Adults drink nectar from a wide variety of flowers; caterpillars feed almost exclusively on brassicas (cabbage family).
- Range
- Europe, North Africa, Asia, New Zealand (introduced)
- Size
- Wingspan of 5.5 to 7.0 cm.
- Lifespan
- 1 to 2 months as an adult; up to 10 months total including overwintering.
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Intensive chemical pesticide use in agriculture and loss of wild cruciferous host plants.
- Safe to approach?
- Completely harmless to humans. You can safely observe them from any distance. While the caterpillars are voracious garden pests on cabbage crops, they are non-venomous; however, wash your hands after handling them as they can secrete mustard oils that may irritate the eyes.
Pieris brassicae , the large white , also called cabbage butterfly , cabbage white , cabbage moth (erroneously), or in India the large cabbage white , is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is a close relative of the small white, Pieris rapae .
Photo: Thomas Bresson, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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