Checkers

Male Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines)

One of the early-season butterflies that has made quite a splash in our garden this spring is the unmistakable Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines). Somehow, they weren't on our butterfly list until this spring, though I'm sure we must have seen some before then. This year, however, they've been hard to miss! Mike got the nice snap of the male above; it's certainly easy to see how it got its common name. The female (pictured below) is a bit tougher to identify. From above, she looks very similar to the Small White. Underneath, though, is a different story. The green-and-white checkered pattern (found on the underside of both males and females) is unique among Britain's breeding butterflies, and shared by only a few closely-related species elsewhere in Europe. The Orange-tips are in our garden thanks to our burgeoning stands of Garlic Mustard, which we've left specifically to attract them. Both that and Cuckoo-flower are favoured larval food plants. Other crucifers (members of the cabbage family) are also used to a lesser extent, but caterpillar survival isn't thought to be good on those plants.

Orange-tips are now common and widespread across most of the British Isles, having surged north well into Scotland over the past 30 years. Their range extends throughout Europe and across temperate Asia as far as China. Although they prefer damper habitats, such as the banks of streams and rivers, woodlands and hedgerows, they'll readily visit gardens too. Adults are on the wing between April and July. Females lay their tiny eggs, which turn bright orange as they mature, near the developing seeds of the host plants. When the caterpillars emerge, they eat first their eggshell, and then any nearby unhatched eggs — eliminating the competition. By July, the caterpillars will pupate, remaining encased until the following spring, when they emerge as adults.

Female