This butterfly is a member of the large family called whites. Some of these butterflies are pests. They lay eggs on cabbages and kale that we want to eat! If you find a little green caterpillar in your greens, it is probably a member of this family. The checkered white is not a bad pest. It often eats weeds and even when they attack our cabbages, they do much less damage than the nonnative related white cabbage butterfly. You can tell the males and females apart if you see them together because the females tend to have much darker wings with more spots. The butterfly in the picture is probably a female.
