The cabbage moth (Mamestra brassicae) is primarily known as a pest that is responsible for severe crop damage of a wide variety of plant species.

[1] Other notable host plants include tobacco, sunflower, and tomato, making this pest species particularly economically damaging.

[citation needed] While the moth is generally limited to this range, there is a threat that it could be introduced to new regions through global food trade industries involving live plant imports.

[5] B. brassicae L. (= albicolon Stph., nec Hbn., ochracea Tutt) Forewing grey-brown varied with fuscous: lines pale, dark-edged; orbicular stigma rounded, reniform large, white-spotted, or filled in with white; hindwing brownish, with a paler mark near end of vein 2.

is a blackish form with the reniform stigma and submarginal line white, occurring occasionally in Europe as well as in Britain; — scotochroma Rob., a local German form, is melanic, with both wings blackish, much like albidilinea, but without the white submarginal line; — unicolor Tutt has all the markings, dark and light, more or less lost in the fuscous suffusion, the reniform edged only with whitish; — on the other hand andalusica Stgr.

= straminea Failla-Ted., from Sicily and Italy) is pale grey- brown with a faint ochreous flush, darker grey in female, with all markings obscured except the 3 stigmata which are strikingly pale, with partial blackish outline, especially on their lower edge, the claviform sometimes grey; — decolorata Stgr.

from Issykkul and other localities in Central Asia is pale greyish brown, with the stigmata as in andalusica, but with the markings, especially the submarginal ones, not obsolete; — canescens Moore from Yarkand, which I have not seen, is, judging from the figure, very close to, if not identical with, decolorata which it antedates by 10 years.

Larva polyphagous, varying in ground colour from green to brown and blackish, with broad pale spiracular line; a dorsal hump on segment 11.

Diapause is this species' most variable life stage, lasting anywhere from 80 days to six months if needed over the winter.

In the first instar, the caterpillar has a light green body with three pairs of legs along the thorax and an anal appendage at the end of the abdomen.

The total time for this larval development is four to six weeks and the final body length ranges from 40–50 millimetres (1+9⁄16–1+15⁄16 in).

[2][7] Known colors, closures and patterns include- Larvae can be found feeding on plant leaves during the night.

Their appearance is similar to many moths within the same family; they are gray, black, green, or brown with delicate patterning of lines and spots across the entire adult body.

Characteristic markings of the species include a kidney shaped spot enclosed in a white border on the forewing of the adult.

Mating pairs remained associated for upwards of twelve hours, with females covering male wings with the posterior of their body during this time.

[19] Upon hearing the call of the female, the male similarly points his antennae forward and begins to flap his wings rapidly.

[19] When the male locates the calling female, he approaches her and touches his antennae to her body as the first point of contact.

[20] Another study was conducted to understand the influence of host plant damage on the host-finding behavior of female moths.

Surprisingly, female moths of this species tend to preferentially select for damaged host plants for oviposition.

During the fourth instar, the larvae tend to burrow into the core of many fruits, vegetables, and plants rendering them unfit to sell commercially.

Because of the irreparable damage to their host plants, these moths are treated largely as pests and species control practices are undertaken by those within the agricultural industry.