I love this butterfly because of the turquoise colored antennal clubs. This butterfly was not easy to photograph at first, but then decided to hang out on a leaf closer to me.

I have read that this butterfly is sort of easy to identify the male and female. The males are whiter in color, while the female appears more of a dirty white to gray. There are also other identifiers in the forewing and ventral hindwing. The male has a black forewing apex and a ventral hindwing white-yellow appearance. The female has a black forewing apex and forewing cell spot and the ventral hindwing is gray.

The wingspan of the great southern white is 45 to 58 mm. Their flight season is year round in such areas as South Texas, peninsular Florida, as well as the Gulf Coast. They enjoy habitats in salt marshes, beaches, roadsides and disturbed areas.

According to the Florida Museum its host plant is the Virginia pepper grass, saltwort, limber caper and sea rocket. I also read that the caterpillar also hosts on plants from the mustard family. The egg is yellow and are either laid single, or in clusters. The caterpillar has a gray body with both yellow and orange longitudinal bands. The caterpillars body also has black dot tubercles with sparse long hairs. If that was not colorful enough, it also has a yellow orange head with speckled black dots.