144 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES, 



to eight days. The cater|)illar feeds on various Crucifer- 

 ous plants, of which turnip appears to be the favorite, and 

 eats to repletion, the skin of the body being tense and 

 glistening after a meal; it feeds only on the under surface, 

 biting holes through the leaves and never attacking them 

 at the edges. The chrysalis, when not hibernating, hangs 

 from seven to eleven days. 



The summer broods are almost pure white beneath, while 

 the spring brood is heavily, often (especially in northern- 

 most localities) very heavily, marked. 



PIERIS RAPAE— THE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY. 



Butterfly.^Wings dull white, the hind wings pale lemon-yel- 

 low beneath, flecked uniformly with griseous; fore wings with the 

 extreme apex blackish brown above, more broadly washed with 

 yellow beneath ; besides, on both surfaces is a round black spot 

 on the middle of the outer half of the fore wing and beneath it, 

 on the under surface, a small spot on the inner margin, opposite 

 which, on the costal margin of the upper surface of the hind 

 wings, is a short black bar. Expanse about 2 inches. 



Caterpillar. — Head green. Body slender, naked, pilose, green, 

 with a yellowish dorsal band and a similar but slender and inter- 

 rupted stigmatal band. Length nearly | inch. 



Chrysalis. — With compressed conical elevations above on the 

 middle of the thorax and the sides of the second and third ab- 

 dominal segments, the latter not flaring, the frontal projection 

 much larger than broad, the wing-cases not protruding beneath ; 

 color green, the elevated portions infuscated at tip. Length 

 nearly | inch. 



This butterfly was introduced into this country from 

 Europe at Quebec about 1860, and again at New York in 

 1868, and has thence spread over our entire region and far 

 beyond, largely displacing our native butterflies, Ponlia 

 protoclice and Pieris oleracea, apparently from the earlier 

 appearance of some of the broods and its extreme fecun- 

 dity; there is no cultivated spot where it cannot be found. 



