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XXII. — Observations on the Natural History and Economy of 

 various Insects nffccting the T^tr^iip Crojjs, including the 

 White Cahlmge- Butterflies, the Turnip-seed Weevil, cj-c. By 

 John Curtis, F.L.S., Corresponding Member of the Impe- 

 rial and Royal Georgofili Society of Florence, &c. 



Paper IV. 



Cabbage and Turnip Butterflies. 

 Although some caterpillars will feed upon a great variety of 

 plants, for the most part they are confined to a few, and those are 

 generally of the same natural order, that is to say, they are kindred 

 species. This is the case with the Cabbage- Butterflies,* whose 

 caterpillars not only frequently completely destroy that useful 

 vegetable in the cottager's garden, but they live to a great and 

 often to a mischievous extent upon turnips, rape, 6cc., as will be 

 shown in the sequel. There are three species of these Butterflies, 

 belonging to the Order Lepidoptera, and to a Family called 

 Papilionidje, which embraces all butterflies, amounting in 

 Britain to about eighty species, f forming the Linna^an Genus 

 Papilio ; but the White Cabbage- Butterflies and two or three 

 others have been separated by modern naturalists, and are now 

 distinguished as the Genus Pontia.J The largest of these is 

 abundant in gardens, turnip-fields, and road- sides, where it is 

 seen on the wing from the middle of May to October : common 

 as it is, and familiar as every child is with the White Cabbage- 

 Butterfly, how few persons comparatively are acquainted with its 

 origin and transformations! Its history will therefore prove in- 

 teresting and instructive ; but before we proceed to its economy, 

 it will be necessary to describe it, in order to distinguish it from 

 the two others alluded to. From the mischief the Caterpillars 

 occasion to the cabbages it is called 



1. P. Brassicac, Linn., or the White Cabbage-Butterfly. The 

 male (fig. 1) is white above, the head and thorax are clothed 

 with soft yellowish hairs ; the two horns are spotted with black, 

 and the club is black above and ochraceous beneath ; the upper 

 wings have black tips in the form of a crescent ; the interior 

 wings have a blackish spot on the upper edge ; the body is black ; 

 the wings expand 2J inches ; the female is larger, being about 

 3 inches across, and is distinguished by two large black spots on 

 the upper wings, and a freckled splash upon the inferior margin ; 



* P. rapes departs from this rule ; for it has been found feeding upon 

 garden- flowers which are not cruciferous, and even upon the weeping- 

 wiUow. 



t Curtis's Guide, Genera 763-780. 



% Curtis's Brit. Ent., fol. and pi. 48. 



