A Butterfly’s Favorite Color
I don’t know if yellow is the favorite color of the cabbage white butterfly. They prefer yellow, blue, and purple flowers over red, white, and green ones. On one day last week, I watched a cabbage white that showed a distinct preference for yellow in the form of the flowers of birdsfoot trefoil. It visited no other species or color of flower. The butterfly loved these bright, yellow flowers that stood out so conspicuously. The cabbage whites are lucky because birdsfoot trefoil grows in such profusion in so many different places. The cabbage whites also use odor to identify their preferred flowers.
A cabbage white remembers that the yellow birdsfoot trefoil is a good source of nectar. Its memory is limited. If a cabbage white switches to purple clover, it will forget about the birdsfoot trefoil.
The ability to find nectar from the flower increases over time, showing a certain learning curve. Furthermore, the ability to find nectar from the first flower species decreased if the adult butterfly started to feed [on] nectar from other plant species.
- Wikipedia article “Pieris rapae”
I posted shots of a cabbage white approaching and landing on a clump of birdsfoot trefoil flowers. Also, a few shots of other butterflies that I photographed on the same hike on the Burkhardt Trail in Willow River State Park near Hudson, Wisconsin.
Butterflies can be hard to identify, even with good photographs. I try to ID everything I shoot, but sometimes give up in frustration. The one below on the yellow flowers is a skipper. There are many types of skippers; I cannot specify which is the correct species.
