Cabbage white
Amazing fact
A cabbage white chrysalis supports its body with silk spun as a caterpillar.
国土交通省 太田川河川事務所
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A cabbage white chrysalis supports its body with silk spun as a caterpillar.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Cabbage white
- Scientific name
- Pieris rapae
- Japanese name
- モンシロチョウ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Pieridae
- Genus
- Pieris
A butterfly that lives all over Japan and in many countries around the world. It likes bright, open places such as fields, roadsides and meadows.
Its wings are white with black spots. The female's wings are slightly grayish, and her black markings are bolder than the male's.
Caterpillars eat cabbage and other plants of the mustard family. Newly hatched caterpillars begin by eating their own eggshell.
How the Cabbage white lives
Adults are active by day and drink nectar from flowers. Females land under leaves and bend their abdomens to lay eggs. They spend the winter as chrysalises.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web国土交通省 太田川河川事務所Basic data
- Diet
- Flower nectar
Where the Cabbage white has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- モンシロチョウ
- 简体中文
- 菜粉蝶
- 繁體中文
- 白粉蝶
- 한국어
- 배추흰나비
- Español
- Blanquita de la col
- Français
- Piéride de la rave
- Deutsch
- Kleiner Kohlweißling
- Português (Brasil)
- Borboleta-das-couves
- Italiano
- Cavolaia minore
- العربية
- أبو دقيق الملفوف الصغير
- Русский
- Репница
- Türkçe
- Küçük Beyazmelek
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 国土交通省 太田川河川事務所 — 太田川生物誌 モンシロチョウChecked: 2026-11-03
- 守山市 — 美崎公園とその周辺の自然（チョウのなかま）Checked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Pieris rapaeChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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