Little cabbage white butterfly

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Little cabbage white butterfly
Small cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae)

Small cabbage white butterfly ( Pieris rapae )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Whitelings (Pieridae)
Subfamily : True whiteflies (Pierinae)
Genre : Pieris
Type : Little cabbage white butterfly
Scientific name
Pieris rapae
Linnaeus , 1758
Little cabbage white butterfly

The small cabbage white butterfly ( Pieris rapae ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the family of white butterflies and is one of the most common butterflies in Central Europe. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word rapa ( turnip ). However, beets are not part of the caterpillars' diet .

features

The animals have a wingspan of 40 to 50 millimeters; the top of the wings is white with dark gray edges. There is a gray spot on the forewing of the male, and two in the female. The upper sides of the hind wings are creamy white and have a gray spot, which is much less pronounced in the male than in the female. The undersides of the wings are grayish yellow in color, with the forewings tending towards white.

The caterpillars reach a length of 25 millimeters, are colored light to dull green and show yellowish side and back stripes as well as white color pigments. They are dense and short-haired.

Similar species

distribution

The lesser cabbage white butterfly is common throughout Europe and North Africa. It is also found on all Canary Islands , but is rare on Fuerteventura and has only been detected once on Lanzarote . It was introduced in North America and Australia . The species can be found almost everywhere where its forage plants are found.

Way of life

The eggs are laid individually on leaves in April and July, and larval development is complete after about a month. The forage plants include cruciferous plants (Brassicaceae), capers (Capparaceae), for example capers (Capparis spinosa), nasturtium plants (Tropaeolaceae), reseda plants (Resedaceae) and foxtail plants (Chenopodiaceae). The hibernation occurs in the pupal stage, often one to three meters above the ground on walls, fences and so on.

Flight and caterpillar times

Cabbage white butterflies can occur in up to four generations from March to November of the year. In the Canaries it has been proven all year round.

pest

It now occurs almost worldwide because the insects were brought along with the vegetables. The caterpillars are an important pest in agriculture and vegetable growing. The main damage caused by caterpillar feeding in cabbage cultivation usually occurs from June onwards. Since the larvae also eat their way into the heads of the cabbage plants, the damage can be very high. Control measures must therefore always be carried out before this point in time.

  • Little Cabbage White Eggs

  • Little Cabbage White Egg

  • Little Cabbage White caterpillar

  • Little Cabbage White pupa

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe . tape 1 . E. Schweitzerbartsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908, p. 6 .
  2. ↑ Elizabeth Balmer: Butterflies: Recognize and Determine. Parragon Books Ltd., 2007, ISBN 9781407512037 , p. 51.
  3. ↑ M. Arechavaleta, S. Rodríguez, N. Zurita, A. García (coord.) 2010: Lista de especies silvestres de Canarias. Hongos, plantas y animales terrestres. 2009, Gobierno de Canarias, p. 579 ff.

Initial description

Carolus Linnæus : Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Holmiæ (Salvius), 1758, 824 pp. 1–4, ( Papilio rapae ) p. 468.

literature

  • Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .
  • Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterflies: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
  • Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . 1st edition. tape 1 . Butterflies . 1. General part: systematics, taxonomy and nomenclature, faunistics and ecology, endangerment and protection, data processing; Special part: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 .
  • Gerd Crüger: Plant protection in vegetable growing . With the collaboration of Georg Friedrich Backhaus, Martin Hommes, Silvia Smolak and Heinrich-Josef Vetten (=  Handbook of the Commercial Gardener . Volume 10 ). 4th completely revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3191-9 .

Web links

Commons : Little Cabbage White  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files