Thanks to members of the Concord Discussion List, we have an identification! The February flyer pictured below (another at right) is the White Cabbage Butterfly, Mamestra brassicae, also called the Cabbage Moth. It loves to lay eggs on members of the cabbage family (the Brassicae family) so its caterpillars can eat its preferred food upon hatching. They cause quite a mess in the cabbage patch! They are often the first to hatch out in spring, so the warmth of the house must have hurried things along.The interesting thing is that I've got about 20 different members of the Brassicae family germinating in the room where the butterfly is hanging out. But given that it's just one and I doubt that they're hermaphroditic, I don't think it will lay any eggs that'll hatch out to anything destructive. I'm hoping this little guy/gal is just a dead end street.
