WINTER MEETING, 1877. 67 



Alreacly I luivc heard of this new enemy, whose l)anner here us elsewhere is 

 havoc and destruction, — in Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties. That 

 our whole State is doomed to invasion within tlie next year or two, is as certain 

 as that Ave shall continue to raise and enjoy the delicacies whicii arc furnished 

 in those incomparable vegetables, kale, broccoli, kohl rabi, cabbage, and cauli- 

 flower. 



NO LESS GKITTY THAN DESTllUCTIVE. 



The fact that this imported cabbage butterfly continues to depredate in its 

 native European haunts, where the conditions are so severe, argues ill for its 

 speedy discomfiture hero. One of the many principles established by the adher- 

 ents (:o the doctrine of "natural selection" is the fact that plants and animals, 

 when iutroduced into anew country, find the "struggle for life" less severe, 

 and as the fittest survive, usually thrive, even at the expense, and frequently to 

 the utter extermination of the natives. This fact, so amply sustained by our 

 experience with the Hessian fly, wheat-midge, codling moth, currant saw-fly, 

 etc., etc., is no pleasiug one in view of our subject. If the rape-butterfly can 

 flourish amidst the vicissitudes of old England, Avhat may we expect in new 

 America. I can only answer in the language of one Patrick Henry, when 

 referring to a previous invasion from the same old England: We must fight ; 

 nor can we hope to vanquish our foe even in eight years. In England this but- 

 terfly is so common as to have gained the sobriquet "the butterfly." Both of 

 our native white butterflies, belonging to the same genus as the one in question, 

 of similar habits, and subsisting on the same food plants, though "'to the manor 

 born"' are so impotent to do mischief, that few know even that they feed on 

 cabbage, while this imported species, before it was hardly naturalized, having 

 been this side the ocean scarce a half dozenyears, was said to destroy annually, 

 about the single city of Quebec, $240,000 worth of cabbages. Hence we see 

 that this is a question of no minor importance, and if to be forewarned is to be 

 forearmed, I shall surely have done some good in the work of preparation for 



the coming conflict. 



HISTORY THIS SIDE THE ATLANTIC. 



This insect was imported in 1857 or 1858. It was observed and taken by a 

 Canadian entomologist in 1859, at Quebec. From that place as a center it has 

 rapidly spread to the west, and more rapidly to the south, reaching Washington, 

 some years since, and during the past season entered our own goodly State, 

 where, true to its reputation, it commenced a thorough work of extermination.* 



DESCEIPTION. 



This butterfly is about the size of our two native species; the usually immac- 

 ulate Picris oleracea — Boised, which fifteen years ago was by far our most com- 

 mon species, and the now more familiar Pieris protodice — Boised, which is more 

 or less thickly sprinkled, flecked and spattered wdth black. The new comer 

 more closely resembles the second, though the black is generally not so wro- 

 fusely marked, though the spots are more definite in form and position. The 

 general color is usually wliite, though in England, as also in this country a yellow 



* The rape-butterfly has now crossed our State and reached Chicago— NoYcmber, 1877. 



