Pieris rapae is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is known in Europe as the small white, in North America as the cabbage white or cabbage butterfly, on several continents as the small cabbage white, and in New Zealand as the white butterfly. The butterfly is recognizable by its white color with small black dots on its wings, and it can be distinguished from P. brassicae by its larger size and the black band at the tip of its forewings.
Image: Pieris.rapae.mounted
Image: Pieris rapae male
Feeding on the nectar of Aster amellus
Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae) wings closed
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran suborder Rhopalocera, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the superfamilies Hedyloidea and Papilionoidea. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though they likely originated in the Late Cretaceous, about 101 million years ago.
Butterfly
Possibly the original butter-fly. A male brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) in flight.
A zoomed in view of the wing scales on a Aglais io, or peacock butterfly.
Unlike butterflies, most moths (like Laothoe populi) fly by night and hide by day.