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Rural School Leaflet 



the lower side; they are not used for storing honey, but merely as cradles 

 for the young wasps. It is interesting to see one of these combs with 

 each cell filled to its utmost with a chubby little grub that has a head like 

 a drop of amber honey — a head that is always protruding from the 

 cell in order to attract the attention of the worker nurses when they 

 bring in food. One might suppose that hanging head down these legless 

 creatures would fall out of the nest; but nature has provided each with 

 a sticky disk at the end of the body and this holds it fast in the cell. 



Usually a yellow-jacket's nest is inhabited for one year only. All 

 the inmates die off in the fall except a queen which was developed late 

 in the fall. However, we have heard of one or two instances when a 

 clever young queen took advantage of the old nest and used it for a second 

 summer. 



Although wasps are fond of sweets, their chief food consists of insects, 

 and usually the insects that we can best spare, for they destroy many 

 flies, mosquitoes, and injurious caterpillars. 



THE IMPORTED CABBAGE BUTTERFLY* 



Glenn W. Herrick 

 The common green cabbage worm is one of the serious pests of cabbages 

 in this country. It is the caterpillar of the white butterfly so often seen 



fluttering about in numbers over a field of 



^51 tnese vegetables. This butterfly is an Old 



*_-| World insect and was probably imported 



Sr-^y among shipments of cabbages sent from 



\ Europe. It was first noticed in Canada in 



7") i860 and by 1865 it had reached the State 



s\^v' of Maine. From there it has spread over 



the whole United States and has become a 



much more serious pest than our own native 



cabbage butterfly. 



This cabbage pest furnishes a good ex- 

 ample of one way in which we are in con- 

 stant danger of getting new insect enemies. 

 Moreover, it shows how well a pest brought 

 from another country may thrive under the 

 new conditions found here. 



Appearance of the insect. — The parent 



The imported cabbage butterfly : butterfly has two pairs of large, strong, white 

 male above, female below ^^ Eaj± of ^ frQnt wingg hag & black 



patch in the outer corner; those of the mother butterfly bear two black 



♦The larva of the imported cabbage butterfly is a biting insect. 



u 



