The most common butterfly in our yard throughout the growing season is the Cabbage White, Pieris rapae. This is not surprising as it is distinguished as the most widespread butterfly in the world. It is quite adapted to all sorts of environments and feeds on Brassicas — broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale. I’ve discovered, slowly, that to grow any of these crops, I need to cover the row from seed to harvest with Reemay cloth to prevent the adults from laying eggs.

Cabbage butterflies mating

Despite the caterpillar’s ravenous appetite for our garden vegetables, I still like to see the adults flitting about our gardens, serving as pollinators and prey (for other yard denizens). They appear like white cloths skipping among the plants, landing for a spell before lifting off.

The cabbage butterfly is sexually dimorphic. The female has two black spots on the forewing, and the male only one. iNaturalist says that males are mostly white, while females have a tinge of yellow. My thought is in the above photo, the male is on the left and female on the right.