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Cabbage White Butterfly — printable fact sheet
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Cabbage White Butterfly
Pieris rapae
The cabbage white is arguably the most successful invasive insect of the modern era. Introduced accidentally into Quebec around 1860, it spread across North America within decades, and it is now on every continent except Antarctica — and the reason is a biochemical arms race tha…
Did you know?
- Despite their delicate appearance, Cabbage White Butterflies are among the most widespread and adaptable butterfly species on the planet.
- The cabbage plant fights back through a third party: when a cabbage white caterpillar chews it, the plant releases volatile chemicals that summon the parasitoid wasp Cotesia glomerata, which lays eggs inside the caterpillar. The pale, faintly greenish butterflies fluttering over every allotment in Europe and North America are all this one species and its close relative the small white. It is one of the very few butterflies whose global population has increased because of agriculture.
What I learned
Draw the cabbage white butterfly
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