Checkered White

About the Checkered White

A quick, pale butterfly of open weedy ground, the Checkered White rarely sits still long - males patrol almost continuously, coursing low over fields in search of females. The charcoal checkering on the forewings is bolder in females and in cool-season broods, so no two months produce quite the same-looking butterflies.

Under ultraviolet light - which is how the butterflies themselves see - the sexes look completely different, and males use that hidden signal to find mates at speed. To our eyes the male is nearly plain white; to another Checkered White he is anything but.

The caterpillars work the mustard family, especially the peppergrass that fills Texas roadsides and fallow lots, which is why this butterfly thrives in disturbed ground where fussier species disappear. Several broods fly between spring and late fall, and in a good year the last stragglers are still on the wing in November.

They are cautious nectarers, quick to spook, so the best photographs come early in the morning while the day's first individuals are still warming up on flowers.