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LinkedInPosts Tagged: cole crops
The Predator and the Pest
So here's this praying mantis perched on top of a prickly pear cactus. It's early morning and she's hungry. A cabbage white butterfly, looking like a white-gowned princess in a medieval palace, flutters by and pauses on the prickly pear to seek some sunshine. Oops! Fatal mistake. When you're...
Breakfast! A hungry praying mantis eyes a cabbage white butterfly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
With a lightning strike, the praying mantis grasps the cabbage white butterfly with its spiked forelegs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Holding it up like a trophy, the praying mantis begins to eat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The praying mantis concentrates on breakfast. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Finished! Breakfast is over. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Cabbage White Butterfly Not So Bad?
It's the butterfly we're supposed to hate. That would be the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae. Its larvae or cabbageworms are pests of our cole crops, including cabbage, kale and mustard. Pests? You bet. According to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (UC IPM) Program, the...
A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The larvae of the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, are considered pests of cole crops, but we should be thanking them for giving us the pungent taste of wasabi and mustard, scientists say. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
