This to me looks like a female caggabe white butterfly for sure. These butterflies usually do have a yellowish cast to them. but im 100% sure its a caggabe white.

I concur. The Checkered Whites are a pure white below (I'll post some pics when I can get to them).

Here, you can see the three dark spots through the wing that are characteristic of the Cabbage White.

Alert Larry Gene -- he loves these guys!

Jeff

I agree with the above. I saw my first checkered white this year. There was no mistaking it. You will know it when you see it. Nice picture!
-Elisabeth

Yup, the checkered white difference will be obvious.

Thanks for the alert suggestion, Jeff. I don't have to go far out of town to find Becker's, Pine, Western, & Margined whites and also Sara OrangeTips, so all is not lost. We also have Parnassians out here, another large white butterfly.

Thank you everyone for your help. I really appreciate it.
BC

Larry Gene,

Ahh, Parnassius clodius claudianus in the Cascade and Coastal Mountains of OR. Been a long time since I was there doing them... probably late 80's last time. Love that beautiful country. Have you ever reared them? The use Dicentra and Corydalis there - might be a fun project for you to try.

Larry Gene;
Do you mean to tell me you like cabbage whites or whites in general? Cause I got a whole mess o' cabbage whites you can have! I swear these little stinkers are taking over the world here! They are the starlings of the butterfly world. They fly at 50 degrees.
-Elisabeth

I got to see the Parnassius when we were in Yellowstone in '03. There was a mountaintop with about 20 fluttering Whites -- I thought -- and when I got close, they were Parnassius butterflies. What an amazing surprise!

For this east-coaster, almost every new field was an amazing surprise. I highly recommend the Tetons and Yellowstone in late June.

---

Here are pics of the Checkered White taken in Galveston.
male below:
{{gwi:523200}}

male above:
{{gwi:523202}}

female above, laying on pepperweed Lepidium sp.
{{gwi:523204}}

female below. The yellow on the veins, legs, and face is pollen.
{{gwi:523206}}

Jeff

Teeheehee - LarryGene's love of CWs is an ongoing subject of much amusement here. Elizabeth, the CWs are a welcome harbinger of spring and butterfly season as well.

Susan

Wow, I have two in a cage here, as we speak, my daughter just caught. They are like...what is a polite word for vermin? I want to conduct a study sometime. I am convinced they chase other butterflies out of my yard. I have watched them chase orange sulphurs out as they try to lay on the clover. So, one of these days I am going to try to do something quasi-scientific like. Do I see more of other species with or without them? I guess I will have to do it before I remove all the garlic mustard. Then again, it is hard to imagine any of the larger swallowtails being intimidated by such a little whippersnapper of a butterfly.
-Elisabeth

ROTFLMAO! I can see it now, Elizabeth! They domt seem to affect the populatoon in the garden, but I will be more observant from now on.

They are like...what is a polite word for vermin?

squirrels -- rats with cute tails.

Oops, lost track of this thread for a few days.

ladobe: Nope, the only thing I've ever reared is some tiny cats on a calamondin (Citrus mitis) bush in my yard. They became a tortrix moth.

But on the subject of Cascade Mountains and pierids, I observed a female Pine White flying weakly (even for a Pine White!) at 6200 feet elevation in the Mt. Jefferson wilderness over a snowfield. It may have been its last flight, because it sank feebly onto the snow. It is now in my collection. Never saw one up that high around timberline before. This was in the 1990's.

Elisabeth: My general disdain for the Cabbage White is well documented here, but I give it credit for sometimes being the only butterfly around in this neighborhood. And the cabbage white has such a bumbling flight, it might scare anything. I don't know if it could "chase" a sulphur around, as they have a much stronger, deliberate flight.

I have definately seen them chase a sulphur out of my yard that was attempting to lay in the clover. When I reported this to a butterfly collegue of mine she reported the same thing. Now, I don't know how determined these victims were, but in the suburban yard it may make a difference with limited resources. Who knows. Something to watch.
-Elisabeth

Elisabeth, how large is your yard and is it fenced in. What I am trying to determine is if the white is chasing or simply spooking the sulphur.

My yard is just under an acre but is sectioned off. The area I witnessed is probably 50 X 20 and the white came off flowers it was nectaring and chased after a sulphur as it was on the ground. Yes, it probably just spooked it. But it did chase it straight up and went back to nectaring. When we catch butterflies here, it is suprising how hard it is to catch the cabbage whites. They are suprisingly agile and fast.
-Elisabeth

Thanks for those details. Apparently the Cabbage White can be a pest to us and pester butterflies too.