Common cabbage butterflies have been caught this year in last year's fashions, according to UC Davis butterfly expert Art Shapiro. The butterfly wing color and design typically changes from fall to spring weather giving these cream-colored creatures selective advantages for seasonal environmental conditions. For 25 years, Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology, has tracked the life-cycles of the common cabbage butterfly, offering a prize to whomever captures the first one in the new year, typically anticipated about the third week of January. But the year was barely a day old when Shapiro himself bagged the first, winning his own contest. Usually shorter days, longer nights and cooler temperatures typical of late fall trigger a winter dormancy in the cabbage butterfly. This dormancy halts butterfly maturation and protects the pupae from the cold. This winter temperatures remain unusually temperate and the dormancy signals were never sent, leaving cabbage butterflies dressed for autumn flittering around in spring weather and the threat of winter chill still around. Now that these unseasonably dressed butterflies are out and about, lower temperatures could threaten their feeding opportunities and chances to reproduce, putting the adaptability of these delicate creatures to a severe test.