Site navigation
-
Wildlife of Sydney
- Wildlife of Sydney
- Habitats of Sydney
- Crustaceans
- Lace corals and sea mats
- Jellyfish, anemones and corals
- Frogs
- Frogs: Class Amphibia
- Bleating Tree Frog
- Brown Toadlet
- Common Eastern Froglet
- Dainty Tree Frog
- Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog
- Eastern Pobblebonk Frog
- Giant Barred Frog
- Giant Burrowing Frog
- Green and Golden Bell Frog
- Green Tree Frog
- Haswell's Froglet
- Jervis Bay Tree Frog
- Leaf Green Tree Frog
- Lesueur's Frog
- Peron's Tree Frog
- Red-crowned Toadlet
- Red-eyed Tree Frog
- Rocket Frog
- Sandpaper Frog
- Striped Marsh Frog, Limnodynastes peronii, Duméril and Bibron 1841
- Spotted Marsh Frog
- Tusked Frog
- Tyler's Toadlet
- Verreaux's Tree Frog
- Insects
- Ant-raiding Ant
- Bull ants
- Funnel Ant
- Golden-spined Ant
- Green-head Ant
- Meat Ant
- Spider Ant
- Sugar Ant
- Common Blue-banded Bee
- Common Wasp-mimic Bee
- Cuckoo bees
- Feathery Leioproctus Bee
- Honey Bee
- Leafcutter Bee
- Masked bees
- Nomia bees
- Peacock Carpenter Bee
- Reed bees
- Stingless Bee
- White-banded bees
- Braconid wasps
- Cuckoo wasps
- Diapriid wasps
- European Wasp
- Fig wasps
- Flower wasps
- Hatchet wasps
- Ichneumonid wasps
- Mud-dauber Wasp
- Paper wasps
- Potter wasps
- Sand wasps
- Spider wasps
- Velvet ants
- Steel-blue sawflies
- Australian Carpet Beetle
- Beach rove beetles
- Bess Beetle
- Blue Mountains Firefly
- Bombardier Beetle
- Christmas Beetle
- Click beetles
- Darkling Beetle
- Feather-winged beetles
- Flat African Dung Beetle
- Jewel Beetle
- Lesser Grain Borer
- Long-nosed Lycid Beetle
- Orchid Beetle
- Paropsine Beetle
- Plague Soldier Beetle
- Powder Post Borer
- Pumpkin Beetle
- Punctate Flower Chafer Beetle
- Transverse Ladybird
- Three-punctured Diving Beetle
- Whirligig Beetle
- Bronze Orange Bug
- Cotton Harlequin Bug
- Crusader Bug
- Feather-legged Assassin Bug
- Floury Baker
- Giant Water Bug
- Greengrocer
- Green Vegetable Bug
- Termite Assassin Bug
- Australian Painted Lady
- Blue Triangle Butterfly
- Cabbage White Butterfly
- Caper White Butterfly
- Common Brown Butterfly
- Common Imperial Blue Butterfly
- Common Grass Blue
- Bronze Flat Butterfly
- Macleay's Swallowtail
- Meadow Argus Butterfly
- Orange Palm Dart
- Orchard Butterfly
- Wanderer Butterfly
- Yellow Admiral
- Emperor Gum Moth
- Giant Wood Moth
- Grapevine Moth
- Privet Hawk Moth
- Scribbly Gum Moth
- White-stemmed Gum Moth
- Fiery Skimmer
- Mountain Tigertail dragonfly
- Pygmy Shutwing
- South-eastern Petaltail
- Sydney Hawk Dragonfly
- Waterfall Redspot
- Balsam Beast
- Black Field Cricket
- Blackish Meadow Katydid
- Common Garden Katydid
- Common Macrotona Grasshopper
- Common Pyrgomorph
- Illawarra Raspy Cricket
- Mole Cricket
- Sydney Gum Leaf Katydid
- Flat Cockroach
- German Cockroach
- Native Cockroaches
- False Garden Mantid
- Purple-winged Mantid
- Australian Sheep Blowfly
- Biting midges
- Crane flies
- House Fly
- Hover flies
- March flies
- Mosquitoes
- Robber flies
- Vinegar Fly
- Reptiles
- Snakes, lizards and other reptiles
- Broad-headed Snake
- Common Death Adder, Acanthophis antarticus, Shaw and Nodder 1802
- Diamond Python
- Green Turtle
- Eastern Brown Snake
- Eastern Snake-necked Turtle
- Water Dragon, Physignathus lesueurii, Gray 1831
- Fence Skink
- Red-bellied Black Snake
- Southern Leaf-tailed Gecko
- Birds
- Birds: Aves
- Birds in Backyards: top 30 urban birds
- Australian Pelican
- Bar-tailed Godwit
- Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
- Black Kite
- Common Bronzewing
- Common Koel
- Flame Robin
- Galah
- Golden Whistler
- Great Cormorant
- Great Egret
- House Sparrow
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Masked Lapwing
- Pallid Cuckoo
- Pied Oystercatcher
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
- Spiders
- What are spiders?
- Bird-dropping spiders
- Black House and Grey House Spiders
- Daddy-long-legs Spider
- Flower Spiders
- Garden Orb Weaving Spiders
- Golden Orb Weaving Spiders
- Ground spiders
- Huntsman Spiders
- Jumping spiders
- Magnificent Spider
- Net-casting Spiders
- Redback Spider
- Sac Spiders
- Silver Orb Weaving Spiders
- Spotted Ground Spiders
- Sydney Funnel-web Spider
- Trapdoor Spiders
- Wolf Spiders
- Centipedes and millipedes
- Sea squirts and cunjevoi
- Sea stars, sea urchins and other echinoderms
- Mammals
- Mammals: Mammalia
- Australian Fur Seal
- Black Rat
- Bottlenose Dolphin
- Bush Rat
- Common Bent-wing Bat
- Common Brushtail Possum
- Common Ringtail Possum
- Feathertail Glider
- Grey-headed Flying-fox
- House Mouse
- Humpback Whale
- Koala
- Long-nosed Bandicoot
- Short-beaked Echidna
- Southern Brown Bandicoot
- Southern Right Whale
- Spotted-tailed Quoll
- Sugar Glider
- Swamp Wallaby
- Water-rat
- Freshwater fish
- Sharks and rays
- Common Stingaree, Trygonoptera testacea Müller & Henle, 1841
- Eastern Shovelnose Ray, Aptychotrema rostrata (Shaw & Nodder, 1794)
- Greynurse Shark, Carcharias taurus Rafinesque, 1810
- Port Jackson Shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni (Meyer, 1793)
- Spotted Wobbegong, Orectolobus maculatus (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Marine fishes
- Australian Mado, Atypichthys strigatus (Günther, 1860)
- Bigbelly Seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis Lesson, 1827
- Blacktip Bullseye at South Solitary Island
- Eastern Blue Devil, Paraplesiops bleekeri
- Eastern Blue Groper, Achoerodus viridis (Steindachner, 1866)
- Eastern Frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius (White, 1790)
- Eastern Wirrah, Acanthistius ocellatus (Günther, 1859)
- Fanbelly Leatherjacket, Monacanthus chinensis (Isbeck, 1765)
- Fortescue, Centropogon australis (White, 1790)
- John Dory, Zeus faber Linnaeus, 1758
- Luderick, Girella tricuspidata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
- Mulloway, Argyrosomus japonicus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- Old Wife, Enoplosus armatus (White, 1790)
- Peppered Sole, Aseraggodes sp
- Pineapplefish, Cleidopus gloriamaris De Vis, 1882
- Red Indianfish, Pataecus fronto Richardson, 1844
- Red Morwong, Cheilodactylus fuscus (Castelnau, 1879)
- Eastern Red Scorpionfish, Scorpaena cardinalis Richardson, 1842
- Sand Whiting, Sillago ciliata Cuvier, 1829
- Sergeant Baker, Hime purpurissatus Richardson, 1843
- Silver Biddy, Gerres subfasciatus (Cuvier, 1830)
- Snapper, Pagrus auratus
- Sydney Cardinalfish, Apogon limenus (Randall & Hoese, 1988)
- Trumpetfish, Aulostomus chinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (Lacépède, 1804)
- White's Seahorse, Hippocampus whitei Bleeker, 1855
- Molluscs
- Overview of molluscs - Phylum Mollusca
- Non-marine Molluscs
- Blacklip Abalone
- Black Nerites
- Blue-lined Octopus
- Blue mussels
- Cart-rut Shell
- Common Pipi
- Common Sydney Octopus
- Elephant Snail
- Garden Snail
- Giant Cuttlefish
- Ischnochiton australis
- Leopard Slug
- Limpets
- Little Blue Periwinkle
- Red Triangle Slug
- Sea Hare
- Squid
- Sydney Cockle
- Sydney Mud Whelk
- Sydney Rock Whelk
- Turban Snail
- Violet Snail
- Zebra Snail
- Sponges
- About the Museum
- What's on
- Visiting the Australian Museum
ANIMAL SPECIES:Cabbage White Butterfly
The Cabbage White Butterfly is probably the most common butterfly found in Sydney after it was accidentally introduced into Australia. It was first recorded in Melbourne in 1929 and had made it to Sydney by 1941.
Alternative Name/s
Small White Butterfly, Cabbage ButterflySize range
5 cmHabitat
The Cabbage White Butterfly lives in urban areas, forests and woodlands, and heath.
Behaviour and adaptations
Feeding and Diet
The velvety green caterpillars of the Cabbage White Butterfly are considered a pest because they feed on cabbages and other plants found in vegetable gardens, such as cauliflower, brussel sprouts, broccoli, radishes and turnips.
Predators, Parasites and Diseases
Two species of wasp were introduced as biological control agents in the 1940s and have helped reduce the butterfly's abundance and impact.
Classification
- Species:
- rapae
- Genus:
- Pieris
- Subfamily:
- Pierinae
- Family:
- Pieridae
- Superfamily:
- Papilionoidea
- Order:
- Lepidoptera
- Class:
- Insecta
- Subphylum:
- Uniramia
- Phylum:
- Arthopoda
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
Last Updated: 7 May 2009
Would you like to add a comment?
Sign up to add comments and find out more about the other benefits you can enjoy.
Would you like to add a tag?
Sign up to add tags and find out more about the other benefits you can enjoy.
Adult Cabbage White Butterfly View full size
Gregory Miller
© Gregory Miller
Support us
Help us continue to provide quality research, education, community programs and exhibitions.
Online Shop
Featuring a selection of products relating to the collections.
Australian Museum Members
Join today to come to the Museum for free and enjoy many other benefits.
AMBS
Australian Museum Business Services - Ecological, archaeological and heritage consulting.
Museum as a Venue
We have many unique venues ideal for dinner, cocktails, weddings and conferences.
news
Michael Harvey
18 May 2010
We have had a very busy week - lots happening - all over the Museum...
Glenn Ferguson
25 May 2010
After nearly a quarter of a century the Museums Mineral Gallery has had a face lift.
what's new
- Common and Standard Names
- Goldspotted Rockcod on the HMAS Brisbane
- Fierce Snake
- Hyperostosis - Swollen Bones
- Leatherjacket vertebra with hyperostosis
- Michael Kelly and Hyacinth macaw parrot
- The exciting life of Anglerfishes
- Aboriginal Group 1925
- Mulloway on the HMAS Brisbane
- Digital Heritage Students Lecture
what's popular
- Australian Museum Ornithology Collection
- Warty Prowfish, Aetapcus maculatus (Günther, 1861)
- Australian Museum Palaeontology Collection
- Palorchestes: A tale of misidentification
- Australian Museum Mammalogy Collection
- Mammals: Mammalia
- Wasps: Suborder Apocrita
- Chitons - Class Polyplacophora
- Clams, mussels, pipis and oysters - Class Bivalvia
- Octopus, squid and cuttlefish - Class Cephalopoda
recent comments
Food from the sea: shellfish and crustaceans
Hi Cinny01, thank for your question. If you need help with a school project or have a specific question...
Head of a Common Jollytail
Hi Nick, Thank you for your comment. The fish sounds a bit large for a Common Jollytail and I think...
Head of a Common Jollytail
with this rain our dam has filled and over flowed. caught in the grass as the water has droped we found...







