ORIGIN OF BUTTERFLIES 207 



doubt whatever, while there are others which 

 approach in appearance those of the Old World 

 so closely that naturalists are still in dispute con- 

 cerning them. Let us consider a few of these 

 separately, that we may gain some idea as to the 

 nature of their peculiar distribution. 



In the first place there is one species, the Cab- 

 bage butterfly (Pieris rapae), whose introduction 

 into the eastern part of our continent is a mat- 

 ter of history, and of whose immediate European 

 origin there is therefore no question. There are 

 three others, the Mourning Cloak (Euvanessa 

 antiopa), the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), and 

 the Red Admiral (V. atalanta), which do not vary 

 in the slightest degree from the same species in the 

 Old World, although some writers have at times 

 thought that they could pick out the American and 

 European forms when mixed in the same collection. 

 Euvanessa antiopa is very widely distributed, cover- 

 ing ahnost the entire North American continent 

 excepting arctic and subarctic lands, and even here 

 it extends within the latter to Alaska. In the Old 

 World it has an equally wide distribution, being 

 found over the whole of Europe excepting southern 

 Spain, and over all of northern Asia. It is an 

 insect of strong flight, and being found upon both 



