LEPIDOPTERA. 213 



and fennel of our gardens, as well as on the conium, cicuta, sium, 

 and other native plants of the same natural family, which originally 

 constituted the appropriate food of these insects, before the exotic 

 species furnished them with a greater variety and abundance. 

 Their injury to these cultivated plants is by no means inconsider- 

 able ; they not only eat the leaves, but are particularly fond of the 

 blossoms, and young seeds. I have taken twenty caterpillars on 

 one plant of parsley which was going to seed. The eggs laid in 

 July, and August, are hatched soon afterwards, and the caterpil- 

 lars come to their growth towards the end of September, or the be- 

 ginning of October ; they then suspend themselves, become chrys- 

 alids, in which state they remain during the winter, and are not 

 transformed to butterflies till the last of May or the beginning of 

 June in the following year. 



I know of no method so effectual for destroying these caterpil- 

 lars as gathering them by hand and crushing them. An expert 

 person will readily detect them by their ravages on the plants 

 which they inhabit ; and a few minutes devoted, every day or two, 

 to a careful search in the garden, during the season of their depre- 

 dations, will suffice to remove them entirely. . 



In Europe there are several kinds of caterpillars which live ex- 

 clusively on the cruciferous or oleraceous plants, such as the cab- 

 bage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radish, turnip, and mustard, 

 and oftentimes do considerable injury to them. The prevailing 

 color of these caterpillars is green, and that of the butterflies 

 produced from them, white. They belong to a genus called 

 Pontia; in which the hind-wings are not scolloped nor tailed, but 

 are rounded and entire on the edges, and are grooved on the inner 

 edge to receive the abdomen ; the feelers are rather slender, but 

 project beyond the head ; and the antennas have a short flattened 

 knob ; their caterpillars are nearly cylindrical, taper a very little 

 towards each end, and are sparingly clothed with short down, 

 which requires a microscope to be distinctly seen ; they suspend 

 themselves by the tail and a transverse loop ; and their chrysalids 

 are angular at the sides, and pointed at both ends. 



In the northern and western parts of Massachusetts there is a 

 white butterfly, which, in all its states, agrees with the foregoing 

 characters. It is the Pontia oleracea, potherb Pontia, or white 



