Green-veined White
Pieris napi
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The white butterfly that is not eating your cabbages — look for the smoky green veining underneath.
A white butterfly, easily mistaken for the small white, but with distinctive grey-green scaling along the veins of the underside hindwing. It favours damp, sheltered places — ditches, hedge bottoms, damp meadows and woodland rides — rather than open gardens, and is one of the commonest butterflies around Dumfries. It is entirely harmless to garden vegetables.
Behaviour
Green-veined whites fly a wandering, unhurried course low over damp vegetation, stopping frequently at bramble, thistle and knapweed. Eggs are laid singly on wild crucifers — garlic mustard, cuckooflower, watercress — never on cultivated brassicas, which is the crucial difference from the large and small whites. Two broods a year, with a partial third in a warm summer.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Whites and yellows (Pieridae)
- Wingspan
- 4–5 cm
- Status
- Native; abundant, and one of our commonest butterflies
Photo by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons