# 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.

- **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.

## About

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 .

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/ffd78668-4a4e-4e69-9483-f56add6f70bf
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/55401
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieris brassicae
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/9431/medium.jpg (Thomas Bresson, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.