294 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



Kirby says, in connection with the injuries caused by insects : 

 " You will be disposed to admit, however, the empire of insects 

 over the works of creation, and to own that our prosperity, 

 comfort, and happiness are intimately connected with them, and 

 consequently that the knowledge and study of them may be 

 extremely useful and necessary to promote these desirable ends, 

 since the knowledge of the cause of any evil is always a principal, 

 if not an indispensable," step towards its remedy." 



The object of the following few notes is to give some account of 

 an injurious insect, which has made its appearance in Canada with- 

 in the last nine or ten years, namely, Pieris Rupee, Linn., or the 

 small cabbage butterfly of England. As a colonist, it thrives ; 

 and to all appearances there is no fear of the race dying out. This 

 country, for some reason or other, is peculiarly fitted for the 

 development of certain introduced insects, which do not thrive so 

 well in Europe. For instance, another butterfly, Vanessa 

 Antiopa, or the Camberwell Beauty, of England, is one of our 

 most common insects, while there it is rare. Pieris Rapce 

 threatens also to become very common here. 



" This insect was first introduced from Europe into Quebec 

 about 1859 or 1860. It soon became abundant within a circle 

 of forty miles round that city, and has even spread into Maine 

 and Vermont, along the line of railway leading from Quebec."* 



The first notice of its appearance in Canada was by Mr. 

 Couper, in a paper on " The Genera and Orders of Insects," 

 read by him before the Literary and Historical Society of 

 Quebec, on the 20th April, 1864. 



He says: — '-'Another bpecies, supposed to be the Pieris Rapce 

 of Europe, is one of the most common butterflies of this neigh- 

 borhood. Four years ago (1860) I captured the first specimen 

 of this species in Quebec, and then looked on it as a great rarity, 

 but, unfortunately, I cannot do so now. In Epgland it is called 

 the Turnip Butterfly, where it appears at the end of April or 

 middle of May, and the beginning of July or middle of August ; 

 therefore the species is double brooded in England, and, as far 

 as I have studied the introduced butterfly, it is the same with us. 

 Here it appears to have discarded its British food plant and 

 taken to our cabbages. The chrysalides can be found now on 

 any garden fence where cabbages were grown. It would be very 



* Packard's " Guide to Insects." 



