The term cabbage worm is primarily used for any of four kinds of

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

larvae A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect developmental biology, development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typical ...

that feed on

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

s and other

cole crops Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae) with many genera, species, and cultivars being raised for food production such as cauliflower, cabbage, kale, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sp ...

. Favorite foods include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, radishes, turnips, rutabagas and kohlrabi. This small group of similar pest species is known to agriculturists as the cabbage worm compte butterflies (family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

, type genus '' Pieris'', garden whites). * The small white (''P. rapae'') is a small, common, cosmopolitan butterfly whose caterpillar has fine, short fuzz and is bright green; it prefers cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. A larger Old World form (''P. brassicae'') is called large white. A common North American form (''P. protodice'') is known as the southern cabbage butterfly. The

green-veined white The green-veined white (''Pieris napi'') is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. Appearance and distribution A Circumboreal Region, circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and ...

(''P. napi'') occurs in Europe and North America. * The

cabbage looper The cabbage looper (''Trichoplusia ni'') is a medium-sized moth in the family Noctuidae, a family commonly referred to as owlet moths. Its common name comes from its preferred host plants and distinctive crawling behavior. Cruciferous vegetable ...

(''Trichoplusia ni'') is a member of the moth family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family (biology), family of moths. Taxonomically, they are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly ...

. The caterpillar is smooth and green with white stripes. It is called a "looper" because it arches its body as it crawls, inchworm style. This species is very destructive to plants due to its voracious consumption of leaves. It is not restricted to cole crops; other plant hosts include tomato, cucumber, and potato. The adult of the species is a nocturnal brown moth. * The cabbage webworm (''Hellula undalis'') is a widely distributed webworm native to southern Europe or Asia that also injures cabbages and other vegetables in the Gulf states of the United States. * The

diamondback moth The diamondback moth (''Plutella xylostella''), sometimes called the cabbage moth, is a moth species of the family Plutellidae and genus '' Plutella''. The small, grayish-brown moth sometimes has a cream-colored band that forms a diamond along ...

(''Plutella xylostella'' or, in some literature known by the synonym ''P. maculipennis'') is a member of the moth family

Plutellidae The Plutellidae are a family of moths commonly known as the diamondback moths, named after the diamondback moth (''Plutella xylostella'') of European origin. It was once considered to have three subfamilies: Plutellinae, Praydinae, and Scythrop ...

. The caterpillar is smooth and solid green in color. When disturbed, it thrashes and drops off the plant. The newly emerged larva is a

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, a paraphyletic group which ...

, entering the tissues of the leaf and consuming the

parenchyma upright=1.6, Lung parenchyma showing damage due to large subpleural bullae. Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ such as the brain or lungs, or a structure such as a tumour. In zoology, it is the tissue that ...

between the two outer layers of the leaf. Larger larvae make holes through the leaf, consuming all the tissue. The adult of the species is a small, elongated gray moth with whitish spots on the forewings that form two diamond shapes when the moth is at rest. The diamondback moth is primarily a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

species, but is migratory, reaching

temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ra ...

s in most years.

External links

Imported Cabbageworm info page
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
diamondback moth
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
cabbage looper
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site Lepidoptera and humans Agricultural pest insects