Large White
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| Pieris brassicae (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The Large White or Cabbage White Pieris brassicae is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. The butterfly is called the Large Cabbage White in India.
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[edit] Appearance, behaviour and distribution
The Large White is common throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia to the Himalayas often in agricultural areas, meadows and parkland. It is a strong flyer and the British population is reinforced in most years by migrations from the continent. Its wingspan is 5 to 6.5 cm.
The wings are white, with black tips on the forewings of both males and females, the female also has two black spots on each forewing. The underside is a pale greenish and serves as excellent camouflage when at rest. The black markings are generally darker in the summer brood.
[edit] Lifecycle and foodplants
The female lays batches of 20 to 100 yellow eggs on plants in the cabbage family and can be a pest on food crops. They seem to have a preference for cultivated varieties of Brassica oleracea such as cabbage and brussel sprouts. The caterpillars are yellowish green with yellow lines and black spots and feed in groups in plain view on the leaf surface. They gain protection from predators by obtaining distastful mustard oils from their foodplants although large numbers are sometimes lost to the parasitic wasp Apanteles glomeratus. The chrysalis is also yellowish green with black spots. The species over-winters as a chrysalis. It has two broods in a year, the first is on the wing in May and June and the second in August.
Compare Small White.
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[edit] References
- Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
- Gaonkar, Harish (1996) Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
- Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac & Punetha, J.C.(1992) Common Butterflies of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
- Kunte, Krushnamegh (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
- Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.
- Jim Asher et al The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies of Britain and Ireland Oxford University Press
[edit] See also
