The white butterfly is from the family Pieridae. There are many different species including the Arctic White, dark green and white, cashmere white, green banded white and green veined white which is pictured here. They are characterized by their white wings and black marginal markings.

This butterfly is sometimes called the cabbage worm butterfly because the caterpillar or larvae feeds on cabbage. In fact, they have the come quite terrible pass this and are a big problem in many places.

The adult white butterfly likes to get its nectar from a lot of different flowers but it really seems to like the daisy.

Each female can lay around 400 eggs which they typically deposit on the underside of a leaf. The eggs are white in color at first but right before they hatch they turn to orange color. The larva are which comes out of the egg is green with tiny hairs that give it a velvety appearance. There are five larval stages anti-caterpillars grow from 2 mm to 30 mm gaining in orange yellow stripe down their back.

These caterpillars feed on nasturtium as well as cruciferous plants such as cabbage, radish, turnips, kale, mustard and cauliflower and are actually considered pests in some areas as mentioned above.

The caterpillars encase themselves in a 15 mm long pupa which is attached to the underside of a leaf or sometimes on a fence. In either case, the color of the chrysalis or pupa blends in with what it is attached to.

The white butterfly can be found all over the world and has several generations per year with a lifecycle that lasts approximately 6 weeks.