Small white
The small white is a creamy white butterfly with black tips on its front wings. The females also have two black spots in the middle of each front wing. You can see it fluttering around gardens and fields almost everywhere.
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Fun facts
It flaps its wings about 13 times every second.
Its caterpillar is bluish green with a thin yellow line along its back, and it hides on the underside of leaves.
Its tiny yellow eggs have 12 ridges running from top to bottom.
It came to Canada by accident around 1860 and soon spread all over North America.
Because it is so plain, people sometimes think it is a moth.
Most asked questions about Small white
?What does the small white eat?
The butterflies drink nectar. The caterpillars eat cabbage and its relatives.
?How big is a small white butterfly?
Its wings are about 32 to 47 millimetres across.
?How can you tell a small white from a large white?
The small white is smaller, and the black tips on its wings are small. The large white has a big black band on its wing tips.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pieris rapae
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Pieridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Cabbage white, Cabbage butterfly, Small cabbage white, White butterfly
Where the facts come from
- Pieris rapae (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sarefo. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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