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 w^hich 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 antennae 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 



