Pollinator
Checkered white
Pontia protodice
A native white of open, sandy ground, checkered in gray-brown.
- Family
- Pieridae (whites and sulphurs)
- Wingspan
- 1.25 to 1.75 in (3.2 to 4.4 cm)
- Flight season
- Spring to fall
- Range
- Across the United States
- Caterpillar food
- Mustards
- Conservation
- Secure and widespread
The checkered white is a native relative of the cabbage white, the female boldly checkered with gray-brown, a butterfly of dry, open, and disturbed ground.
It flies in several broods and wanders widely, though it has grown scarcer in the East where the introduced cabbage white dominates.
Caterpillars feed on plants in the mustard family, favoring native and weedy species of open places.
Plants for the checkered white
41 native plants with documented flower-visit records. Narrow with the filters below.
41 plants
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 3
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 3
1 of 2
1 of 2
1 of 3
No plants match those filters.
Sources
- Butterflies and Moths of North America ↗
- iNaturalist ↗
- Plant associations from GloBI flower-visit records and NPIN larval-host data. Butterfly photographs via iNaturalist (CC BY).