Orange Tip Butterfly

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The orange tip butterflies are starting to appear. These butterflies are among the first to appear that have not overwintered as adults. Orange tip overwinter as a chrysalis. The food plant tends to be cuckoo flower (ladies smock) or garlic mustard. The caterpillars are green and hard to spot, and are cannabalistic if they come across one of their own.
Only the males have the orange spots. The result of this is that the females tend to be mis identified as either green veined white or small white. To make a definite ID it is necessary to inspect the underwings which have the same characteristic pattern in both sexes. Here is the female for comparison.

Diary
Some green veined white butterflies in the garden. The grass is starting to grow at last! Overnight cameras showed a good shot of a roebuck but not much else. I set a speculative moth trap but it is still chilly and I have nothing to report.



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