Not tonight, dear: Cabbage White Butterfly

Back in the day, and I’m talking about when Thursday Night Shopping was a new and exclusive thing and kids used to wear their bright red dressing gowns out to the shops – actually, NO THEY DIDN’T! THAT WAS AN ELABORATE LIE TOLD BY SOME PARENTS (MINE) THAT YOU ONLY REALISED WHEN OUT IN SAID DRESSING GOWN AND ALL THE OTHER KIDS WERE IN DAY CLOTHES AND GIVING YOU FUNNY LOOKS. Oof, that felt good to get out 🤣 But back in the olden days, I had a pet caterpillar for exactly 2 days. It was a plump green little fella, that did plump dark green poos. I called him Cool Cat (genius, right?) and kept in a jar with holes in the lid and leaves inside.

Now I don’t want to accuse anyone publicly but let’s just say, we, my parents and I, went out for a spot of Thursday Night Shopping (I’ve capitalised it because it truly was a big deal) and when we came home Cool Cat was gone! He somehow mysteriously vanished from the jar even though he was way too fat to fit through the holes. And as someone currently struggling to fit through small gaps I feel qualified to judge. But he somehow had managed to ‘escape’ and my very particular, very tidy mother didn’t spend one second looking for him. It was like she KNEW what had happened! Yes, I’ve been listening to True Crime podcasts lately. Why do you ask? Anyway, insert caterpillar/butterfly trigger here.

A few weeks ago, I spent the morning making my way around Wollongong Botanic Garden. Again, as far as adventures go, it was pretty basic but it was a delicious sunny day, not too hot as to end up a sweaty, panda-eyed mess, but just enough to almost convince myself that I’d had a workout. Kind of. If by workout I don’t really mean a workout. Anyway. There were loads of different critters around including various moths and butterflies and a handful of caterpillars, which are always fun to photograph in such nice light.

And amongst the many feeding insects was a very amorous male Cabbage White Butterfly and a very uninterested female. Firstly, my dude, do not disturb the lady when she’s trying to drink some delicious nectar. Rude. Also, if she has already been mated, she is not going to want to go through that again (apologies to my husband for just describing sex as something to ‘go through’. Poetic licence, I promise! 😂) But seriously, it’s a waste of energy for her as she still needs to lay her fertilised eggs and so, she adopts what’s known as a ‘mate refusal posture’ with her wings spread flat and her abdomen raised up, often with her genitals fully out.

Not gonna lie, didn’t expect to be writing the words ‘with her genitals fully out’ but here we are 🤣 Take that Shakespeare! And yes, I’m drawing a ridiculously long bow, linking my caterpillar based trauma with an unsuccessful butterfly mating attempt but see my previous comment about poetic licence 😉

Cabbage White Butterfly – Wollongong Botanic Garden