Normally, it is easy to tell a white butterfly - because it is white. In southern Europe there are some 'whites' which are not white - the Moroccan orange tip, for example, which is yellow and orange. All our whites here, though, are really white. The only difficulties are that some yellows (chiefly, the pale clouded yellow and the brimstone) have white females and the marbled white butterfly, which is chequered white and dark brown, is actually a 'brown' (family Satyridae). The clouded apollo may also resemble a white.

Two species of white, the large white and small white, are 'pests' of cabbages (though they probably think we are). None of the others are and they sometimes get persecuted even though they are innocent. The same two species are notable migrants, supplementing a resident population with immigrants from the south every summer.

The species you might see here are :