A caterpillar larva that eats cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables, particularly the larvae of certain moth and butterfly species.
From 'cabbage' plus 'worm,' a direct compound describing the creature that infests and damages cabbages.
The cabbage worm (Pieris rapae larvae) is a perfect example of evolution—it specialized so completely in eating one plant that it became a devastating agricultural pest once cabbages spread worldwide!
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