Animal Eyes | Pieris Napi | The underside hind wings are pale yellow with the veins highlighted by black scales giving a greenish tint, hence Green-veined White. The eggs are laid singularly on a wide range of foodplants including Hedge mustard Sisybrium officinale Garlic Mustard Alliaria petiolata, Cuckoo flower Cardamine pratense, Water-cress Rorippa nastutium-aquaticum, Charlock Sinapis arvensis, Large bitter-cress Cardamine amara, wild cabbage Brassica oleracea and wild Radish Raphanus raphanistrum and so it is rarely a pest in gardens. It is often found feeding on the same plant as the Orange Tip but never competes for food because it only feeds on the leaves whereas the Orange Tip caterpillar feeds on the flowers and developing seed pods.
Pieris napi is found in damp, grassy places with some shade, forest edges, hedgerows, meadows and wooded river valleys. The generations vary with location, altitude and season. In southern Europe there are three or more partially overlapping generations from March to October.
The smell of this compound repels other males, thus ensuring the first male's paternity of the eggs—a form of chemical mate guarding.The adult male of this species has a distinctive odour that resembles lemon verbena.Some authorities consider Pieris napi to be a superspecies including the West Virginia White Butterfly , the Mustard White and the Dark-veined White.
