{"id":10170,"date":"2026-08-22T17:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=10170"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:47:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:47:59","slug":"2026-08-meeting-the-green-veined-white-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-08-meeting-the-green-veined-white-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Color illusions and mud puddles: Meeting the green-veined white"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The green-veined white (<em>Pieris napi<\/em>) is a common European butterfly carrying a delightful secret: the &#8220;green&#8221; veins on its underwings don&#8217;t actually contain a single speck of green pigment! Instead, the striking color is a clever optical illusion created by tiny black and yellow scales packed tightly together. Unlike their notorious cabbage-eating relatives, these butterflies are completely harmless to garden crops. Their caterpillars prefer wild plants like garlic mustard and cuckooflower. Newly emerged males spend their mornings &#8220;puddle-drinking&#8221; on damp mud or dung to absorb essential minerals. Females, meanwhile, have a no-nonsense approach to courtship\u2014they reject unwanted suitors by raising their abdomens straight up and releasing a scent tag left by a previous mate that signals they are already taken! While I occasionally see these common butterflies flitting around, taking a sharp macro photo is another story. It took immense patience and a stroke of luck to capture these close-ups in a flowery meadow near Barkarby, Sweden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The green-veined white (Pieris napi) is a common European butterfly carrying a delightful secret: the &#8220;green&#8221; veins on its underwings [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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