104 DESTEUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA. 



for spraying. The soapsuds treatment acted fairly well, as 

 it left a sedimentary deposit upon the leaves which certainly 

 had not the effect of attracting the female to the plant for 

 the purpose of egg-laying. The eggs were deposited, 

 before the remnants of the plants had been treated, in 

 great numl^ers, the young larvae when hatched crawling 

 over the plants and eating voraciously. This butterfly 

 is easily reared by either feeding the larvae or from the 

 chrysalis, the latter method of course giving the least 

 trouble. 



It is thought by many entomologists that this insect 

 does not confine itself altogether to the Capparns for food, 

 but, so far, we in Victoria, have not heard of a case in 

 which it has attacked ordinary fruit trees. In Europe the 

 caterpillar of an allied butterfly (^Fontia rapi) commits 

 great havoc to such plants as cabbage, turnips, &c., and 

 as it deposits its eggs on the under side of the leaves it 

 is less amenable to successful treatment than are many 

 other pests which deposit the eggs on the upper surface 

 of the leaves or stem. In treating trees for these cater- 

 pillars the arsenites should be used, although in the old 

 country, so far back as 1860, Hellebore, as a powder 

 dusted on and under the leaves, gave good results. When 

 insects such as these have to be dealt with good work 

 may be done by means of catching the butterflies in a net 

 and destroying them, also by bruising the eggs with one's 

 finger, and by collecting and destrojdng the chrysalids, 

 which latter are easily seen, as much of this work could 

 be done b}^ children. It is probable, too, that this butter- 

 fly, when in the larval and chrysalid stages, especially in 

 the latter, are attacked by Ichneumon flies, as I have found 

 many of these clirysalids which had been punctured by 

 some insect, which thus assists in keeping down the 

 numbers of this pest. 



