Butterfly-cabbage butterfly

In the spring, as soon as the sun begins to heat upearth, 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 almost all fieldsand 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.

The description of the butterfly-cabbage butterfly is quite simple: it is large, white, with dark, conspicuous spots on the tops of wings. It 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 butter because ofgreat love for cabbage. That's 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, anduntil the beginning of October, you can still see it 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 leaves 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 the light of oneup to three generations a year. There was a time when she did not meet so often, but since people began to widely cultivate cabbage, good times have come for caterpillar belians. Lover of all cultural cruciferous plants, the butterfly-cabbage butter lays its eggs even on weeds. At one time the female can lay six eggs, but the average figure is two hundred to three hundred pieces.

Eggs in the cabbage are painted yellow, haveconical 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 butterfly-cabbage havegreenish blue, with various black spots and yellow stripes along the back and sides. They live three or four weeks, a maximum - a month, having managed to sling a few times during this time interval.

Favorite food caterpillars cabbage, in addition toall 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 birth, the caterpillars of the cabbage keepTogether, gnawing only the middle of the leaves, and only a little older, start eating edges. As a result, only the vein can remain from the cabbage leaves.

The bright color of the butterfly-cabbage caterpillarsis a warning that they are poisonous. Having tried them once, the birds do not infringe on 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 mostsecluded 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 the soil, in the turf or among the fallen leaves.