The wing ends on the male are orange in colour, which gives it the name.
Which tends to prove that the classification of 'whites' is somewhat
arbitrary.The male has orange tips, the female has black wing tips.
Both have mottled green undersides. So if you se a butterfly that
answers one of these descriptions, you will know you are looking at a
'white'.
The orange tip lives throughout Europe, as far north as central
Scandinavia.
In Wales, England and Ireland it is common, but strangely enough it
is absent from parts of northern Scotland. Its range extends east into
the Middle East, into temperate parts of Asia, as far as Japan.
Looking at some of the older butterfly books and comparing them with
up-to-date books, the range of the orange tip seems to be increasing.
Well, that is at least one butterfly we do not have to worry about.
Another 'white' butterfly common at the moment is the green-veined
white. It also appears to be in no bother, unlike other butterflies.
Its range extends from north Scotland and Ireland eastwards across
Europe and north Africa to Asia , and into north America.
Veins under the wings are picked out in streaks of green-black
scales, and this gives the green its appearance, and also the name.
It used to be thought that the green-veined was one of the desperados
responsible for attacking our garden cabbage, but research now shows
that it is blameless.
This delightful creature will feed around the garden, giving us
pleasure by its appearance, but it does no harm. It only lays its eggs
on wild plants, so it caterpillars only eats the wild plants, and leaves
the cabbage alone.
Two other whites are about at this time, the small white and the
large white. Both of these boyos eat cabbage. Well, the female lays the
eggs on cabbage, and when the caterpillar stage is reached, these boyos
eat the cabbage. In fact, they love cabbage as much as we do.
