Green caterpillars on my broccoli plants

Durham, NC

Can anyone tell me what kind of caterpillars these are? I am familiar (or, at least I thought I was familiar) with the caterpillars of the imported cabbage moth, but these buggers look different--the ones I knew to be cabbage worm caterpillars were more a more solid, lighter green, without the yellowish ends, and I usually only saw one or two in a given spot of leaf. As you can see, these worms did quite a lot of foliar damage to the broccoli leaves. Is this some other kind of cabbage moth larva, or is it from a different kind of Lepidopteran? It would be good to know what adult moth lays these eggs so I can chase them away from my garden when I see them (as I have with the cabbage moth on many occasions!).

Please note that this photo was taken in late May--it is NOT current.

Thanks!

Thumbnail by crabbygardener
Crofton, MD(Zone 7a)

I spent some time searching but have not got a definitive answer for you, Crabby. I will make an general guess at the family and hope that someone else will have a better ID.

I agree with you. It doesn't look like the common cabbage white caterpillar, Pieris rapae, but there are other species in the Pieridae family that eat cabbages. Also, the caterpillars could be some species of looper moth.

Durham, NC

Hmm... not sure about them being loopers, because I don't recall them crawling around in the classic "looping" manner...
Thanks for your response!

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