Adults fly several hundred km in lifetime
Migrate France to UK, though perhaps less than in past.
- Return migration detected
- 1912 Sutton Broad – 6 million killed on sundews
Preference for cultivated plants
- Large numbers lost to a parasitic wasp Cotesia [Apanteles] glomeratus (more than 95% on occasions)
- Pliny recommended strewing cabbage patch with nitre or salt earth.

Strong preference for foodplants growing in sheltered situations
Large numbers congregate in oil-seed rape fields
Include migrants from Europe
- Some adults may travel less than 1 km in their lifetime; others may fly over 100 km
Tip for gardeners – go easy on weeding. Weeds harbour butterfly predators
- Modern insecticides at end 20th C had more lethal effect on caterpillar predators (harvestmen and beetles) than the larvae themselves.

Common in sheltered marshy places and on road banks
Not a pest of cabbages
Possibly does not suffer from the high levels of parasitism that Large and Small whites do
- So population more stable
Larvae sometimes found on same foodplants as Orange-tips – but Green-veined Whites eat leaves - not flower heads / seeds
Suffered from habitat loss
- Potentially at risk from climate change (drier warmer summers).

Eggs laid at base of flower heads of plants growing in full sun.
- One egg per flower
- Larvae eat developing flower seeds
- Larvae may successfully develop on a single plant
Emergence from pupae can be delayed one or two years if conditions not right (when observed in captivity)
Suffering from habitat loss through:
- Decline of haymaking as more land cultivated for silage
- Increased fertiliser use
Management of roadside verges might be critical to population survival.

White Butterflies