Butterfly-cabbage butterfly

In the spring, as soon as the sun begins to heat the earth, trees, grasses are literally filled with insects. Here and wasps, and ladybugs, and beetles, and bumblebees. Among them, there is often a butterfly butterfly, which is spread on our continent, although, according to experts, it can be seen in the north of Africa.

Most of its habitats are all fields and meadows. Cabbage can often be found in large cities, and in small settlements, as well as in fields, gardens and other agricultural lands. Some of the butterflies were caught in the Altai mountains, at an altitude of more than two thousand meters.

Description of the butterfly cabbage is quite simple: it is large, white, with dark, conspicuous spots on the tops of wings. She belongs to the class of whitewocks and looks very similar to a red knuckle, only slightly larger and whiter.

Its name was a butterfly-cabbage because of a great love for cabbage. That is why gardeners and agronomists are struggling with it, spraying lots with lots of pesticides. Its caterpillars, having a black and yellow color, live on cabbage in large clusters and severely damage the crop.

Butterfly-cabbage starts its life in April, and until the beginning of October it can still be seen occasionally. She has a fast uneven flight. The dimensions of this, as it is also called, cabbage whitewash - just over three centimeters. When the cabbage lands on the plant, she puts her wings behind her back. The reverse side of its wings is yellowish-green, resembling the coloring of leaves, and this similarity helps it to remain invisible. The males do not have black spots characteristic for females, but the color of the wings is yellowish in both sexes.

Butterfly-cabbage produces from one to three generations a year. There was a time when she did not meet so often, but since people started to widely cultivate cabbage, good times have come for the caterpillar belians. A lover of all cultural crucifer plants, a butterfly-cabbage butter lays its eggs even on weeds. At one time a female can lay six eggs, but the average figure is two hundred to three hundred pieces.

Eggs in the cabbage leaf are colored yellow, have a conical shape with fourteen ribs. They can often be found on the underside of green leaves of cabbage or other cultivated plants - up to forty pieces per masonry.

Adult caterpillars of the butterfly-cabbage butterfly have a greenish-blue color, with various black spots and yellow strips along the back and sides. They live three to four weeks, a maximum of a month, having managed to sob a few times during this time interval.

Favorite food for caterpillars cabbage, in addition to all varieties of cabbage, are radish, horseradish, rapeseed, radish, turnip. Some truck farmers say that these insects do not disdain nasturtium, rhezoda, capers, and even garlic and onions.

After the birth, the caterpillars of the cabbage keep together, gnawing only the middle of the leaves, and only a little older, they begin to eat edges. As a result, only the vein can remain from the cabbage leaves.

The brightly colored caterpillars of the butterfly-cabbage butterfly are a warning that they are poisonous. Having tried them once, the birds do not infringe upon them. During the last molt, and this may be October, the caterpillar begins to turn into a pupa. The shape and color of the pupae of this butterfly is as diverse as its caterpillars: yellow-greenish or whitish-yellow with orange and black dots.

Pupation, as a rule, is carried out in the most secluded places: on fences, under the cornices of buildings, and in the natural biotope puppies, high grass stems and trunks of trees are "girded up." Sometimes they can be seen freely lying on soil, in turf litter or among fallen leaves.