The following photos are made in my biotope and describe some development stages of the cabbage white butterfly:
The female butterfly puts its eggs neatly on the leaf of a plant:
Inside these tiny little eggs the little caterpillars develop:
Time has come: the just about 5 millimeter sized caterpillars left the embryonic membrane:
Here the large white butterfly caterpillar is already to be seen, who really lives up to its name and enjoys eating a cabbage leaf:
Well and what they eat on the front end has to come out on the rear end!
These caterpillars pupate and out of the cocoon hatches out this butterfly:
The pupation I unfortunately was not yet able to take pictures. But the day may come!
July 2009
Birgit Kremer