Margined white butterflies look different depending on when they mature.

Margined wite butterfly taking nectar from thistle flower

Normally, at least for my experience, an adult butterfly is going to look a certain way.  However, the margined white species seems to have an odd characteristic.  They tend to look a little different depending upon what time of year they pupate.

The summer form, shown above, is the pure white variety.  No spots, no black tips, just white.  In fact, this is the whitist butterfly I have ever seen.  Its like it took a similarly sized sulphur butterfly and bleached the entire thing to be devoid of colour.  In the spring time, should the butterfly emerge then, it has black tips on the forewing.  

Another interesting variation is that butterflies from higher elevations tend to be darker.  Humidity also seems to play a bit of a role.  Then, of course, there is the difference between males and females.

Males are more likely to be pure white while females tend to have the aforementioned black wing tips.  If there is geographical variation or variation due to time of year, the black tips are more prominent in some.  

The cabbage white butterfly is a completely different species.  Below is a photo of a cabbage white butterfly I shot some time ago.  You can see the slight yellow tinge and typical spots found in these lepidoptera.  As well, the cabbage white is an introduced species and its caterpillars feed on plants of the cabbage family while the margined white is native and feeds on plants of the mustard family.

Cabbage white butterfly.

Butterflies are such beautiful creatures and add an extra source of joy to anyone seeing them.  It has been wonderful to see so many species this summer as we have travelled around the province.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com