Orange-tip
Anthocharis cardamines
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The male's blazing orange wingtips are one of the first real signals that spring has arrived.
A medium-sized white butterfly of damp meadows, verges, hedgerows and gardens. Males are unmistakable, with a broad orange patch across the tip of each forewing. Females lack the orange entirely and are often mistaken for a small white — until they settle and show the mossy green marbling on the underside of the hindwing that both sexes share. Orange-tips are widespread around Dumfries wherever their foodplants grow.
Behaviour
Males patrol steadily along hedgerows, ditches and damp verges looking for females, rarely settling for long. Eggs are laid singly on the flower stalks of cuckooflower and garlic mustard, and the caterpillar is cannibalistic — a female will avoid a plant that already carries an egg, which is why you rarely find two on one stem. The species spends ten months of the year as a pupa.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Whites and yellows (Pieridae)
- Wingspan
- 4.5–5 cm
- Status
- Native; widespread and spreading north
Photo by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons