Solved Can somebody identify this butterfly or moth?

Can somebody identify this butterfly or moth?

I am sure it is very common, but I don't know anything about butterflies.

 

It looks like a Wood White Butterfly which is very rare particularly in the South and East. I don't know where you are but it is one of our most threatened species.

 

Thanks for identification. I thought it was something like a cabbage white, and I don't know how to tell them apart. As it is a threatened species that changes how I deal with caterpillars, I will try to tolerate them and try to learn how to recognise different species.

I am in the south of England in the middle of a city. Our council has planted huge areas of parks and roadside gardens with pollinator-friendly flowers and has a no-spray (no insecticides or weedkillers) policy. Some of the parks and roadside gardens are stunningly gorgeous at the moment, as close as you get to heaven, with so many beautiful flowers I don't know what most of them are, all buzzing with pollinating insects, butterflies and bees. Somebody has put a huge amount of thought and hard work in there. I think that rare and endangered butterfly must have drifted into my small garden from the nearby parks and gardens. I also noticed that my neighbours have a lot of beautiful pollinator-friendly plants like Verbena bonariensis. I suppose all this creates a corridor of habitats for rare butterflies?

 

I thought it was a cabbage white possibly the smaller kind.
But didn't want to show my ignorance.

 

Hi ,
check out the butterflyconservation.org

I think this is the one which I used to identify not only butterflies but caterpillars too. It's very informative.

 

I find butterflies very difficult unless they have their wings flat.
That's not to say I dont think Strongy has it right, he knows more than me, just my thoughts.

 

Today I found this caterpilllar on a feverfew leaf in the same area of my garden that the white butterfly was yesterday. I have no idea what kind of caterpillar it is. It looks to have two longitudinal dark lines, and is a pale, transparent colour.

Something has been eating the lower leaves of the nearby Morning Glory plant, that I think is caterpillar.

 

I would recommend the Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe as a handy book to use for insect id.

 

Looking at it again I think it is a Large White, going on location and finer detail and so is the caterpillar.

 

Thanks for identification. So it is just a common, non-endangered butterfly/caterpillar that could decimate my plants.

But I should maybe try to learn to recognise the different butterflies and caterpillars and sometimes give them the benefit of the doubt.

I did google them, but is wasn't very clear.

 

Thanks, I will look for this book. I wasn't having much luck trying to google them.

 

My favourite id tool, Google lens, suggests Green-veined-white

The wing shape seems to fit.

 

Pretty much impossible to identify from such angles for me! Definitely not a Green-veined White as the veining is not pronounced.

Nick