Cabbage White

Here's a White Cabbage butterfly. It's original home is considered to be the eastern Mediterranean region, but as its host plants have thrived and traveled the world due to us humans, this butterfly has followed along with those plants.

And there are a lot of those host plants. As caterpillars these guys eat plants in the mustard/cabbage family, which consists of cabbage and other cultivars of the same species (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, et al), radishes, turnips, and some watercress and yellowcress plants. (I didn't see the invasive Garlic Mustard on the list.) It's little wonder that we see a lot of these butterflies most years; they picked good host plants.

They have a larger relative, the Large White, but (so far) that butterfly hasn't found its way over to North America.



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