Great Southern White Butterfly - Pupa

Description:

Family: Pieridae. Male white with black forewing apex. Female is dirty white to gray, with black forewing apex, and black forewing cell spot. Ventral hindwing, white-yellow in males, to gray in females. Egg: yellow, spindle-shaped, laid singly, or in small clusters on host leaves. Mature larva: yellow with gray longitudinal stripes, and covered in small black spots. Pupa: is normally an off white, with dark coloring. Two " spikes", protrude from the top of the pupa. Pupa size, is 1.0 inch. The pupa hatches in about 6-7 days. The wingspan of the adult butterfly, is from: two and one half inches, to three and three eighths of an inch. The flight period, is all year long, in south Texas, peninsular Florida, and along the Gulf Coast. Caterpillar host plants: Mustard family ( Brassicaceae), plants including beach cabbage, cultivated cabbage and radish, peppergrass, and plants in the Caper family ( Capparidaceae), including nasturtium, etc.

Habitat:

Salt marshes, coastal dunes, beaches, open fields, gardens, roadsides, and disturbed sites.

Notes:

I go out into the woods everyday, searching for insects, caterpillars, butterfly pupae, and moth cocoons, to photograph. On Friday, I went out into the woods, and I found some, Great Southern White Butterfly Pupae, on one of the caterpillars host plant. ( peppergrass). The pupa was about three fourths of an inch long. It had two " spikes", protruding from the top of the pupa. The pupa was an off white in color, and it also had some dark brown coloring to it too.