What is "pieris rapae"

cabbage butterfly \cab"bage butterfly\ (Zo["o]l.), a white butterfly ( Pieris rap[ae] of both Europe and America, and the allied Pieris oleracea, a native American species) which, in the larval state, devours the leaves of the cabbage and the turnip. See also Cabbage worm, below.

cabbage worm \cab"bage worm`\, cabbageworm \cab"bage*worm`\n. (Zo["o]l.), the larva of several species of moths and butterflies, which attacks cabbages. The most common is the toxic green larva of a white butterfly, the cabbage butterfly, ( Pieris rap[ae]). The cabbage cutworms, which eat off the stalks of young plants during the night, are the larv[ae] of several species of moths, of the genus Agrotis. See Cutworm. larva of a cabbage butterfly.

Pieris rapae, the small white, is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is also known as the small cabbage white and in New Zealand, simply as white butterfly. The names "cabbage butterfly" and "cabbage white" can also refer to the large white. The butterfly can be distinguished by the white color with small black dots on its wings. They are distinguished from the smaller size and lack of the black band at the tip of their forewings.

It is widespread and populations are found across Europe, North Africa, Asia, South America, and Great Britain. It has also been accidentally introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The caterpillar of this species is seen as a pest for commercial agriculture. Often referred to as the "imported cabbageworm" they are a serious pest to cabbage and other mustard family crops.