During mid April’s hot weather I saw my first cabbage white butterfly of the year.

Cabbage whites (Pieris rapae) overwinter in the chrysalis but are quick to emerge when the weather warms up. They’re one of the first butterflies to emerge in the spring.

You might think they look boring because they’re simply white but these butterflies have an amazing color we can’t see.

On Throw Back Thursday, read how cabbage whites communicate in color in this vintage article:  If Only We Could See.

(photo at top from Wikimedia Commons, white-and-purple image by Nathan Morehouse in Science Magazine. Click on the images to see full photo credits.)