336 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



Pkoto by] [H. Main, F.E.S. 



Large Garden White Butterfly. 



A view from above to show the markings of the female, and the 

 full spread of the expanded wing";. Th^se measure from two 

 and a half to two and three-quarter inches from tip to tip of the 

 fore-wings. The two sexes are differently marked, as will be 

 evident by comparing this photograph with that of the male on 

 page i},^. 



chrysalis turns brown — a useful indica- 

 tion to the husbandman that this con- 

 tains friends instead of an enemy — and 

 in spring, instead of a butterfly there 

 issues forth a hundred minute four- 

 winged " flies." It is just as well, for 

 in addition to the large white butterflies 

 that are produced from home-fed cater- 

 pillars, we are constantly receiving large 

 hordes of surplus Continental produc- 

 tion, who take the vStraits of Dover at 

 a flight, and disperse themselves on an 

 egg-laying mission over the country. 

 It is probable that the great abundance 

 of the butterflies here in some seasons is 

 largely due to these immigrations. 

 Although the butterfly is so well known that a description is unnecessary, 

 there is a difference in the markings of the sexes that should be stated. In both 

 the upper side of the wings is white with a black blotch at the tip of the fore-wing. 

 In addition to that blotch the male has only a black mark on the front margin of 

 the hind-wing ; but the female has two black spots on the fore-wing, and a streak 

 of the same hue on the hind-margin of the wing. On the under side the wings 

 of both sexes are alike : the black of the fore-wing tip is replaced by yellow, the 

 spots of the female upper side are repeated below in both sexes, and the hind-wing 

 is yellow powdered with black. 



The small garden white is so similar in all respects except that of size, that 

 the uninitiated may surely be forgiven for their assumption that it is only a smaller 

 or younger example of the large white. The only marked difference is in the male, 

 which has a black spot in the centre of the fore-wing, sometimes very small or 

 very indistinct. The tips of the wings, too, in both sexes are not so definitely 

 black as in the larger species. The butterfly makes its first appearance in April 

 or May, a second brood appearing in July. 



Its eggs are laid on cabbage and allied plants, not in batches, but singly, so 

 that we do not find the caterpillars swarming on a leaf and reducing it to a skeleton. 

 The downy caterpillar is more distinctly green — a bluish-green — than that of the 

 larger species, in which the yellow markings give the general tone. There is yellow 

 in the smaller species, but it is restricted to a fine line down the centre of the back, 

 and a narrow broken stripe along each side. In addition to plants of the cabbage 

 tribe, it is very partial to garden nasturtiums and mignonette, but these are attacked 

 chiefly by caterpillars of the second brood in July and August, the plants being 

 scarcely ready for the first brood. The chrysalis is much smaller, more slender, 

 usuafly light greenish-grey, with the angles slightly tipped with yellow, but the 

 black dots are much smaller and less numerous. 



The eggs laid in April or May result in butterflies at the end of July or beginning 

 of August, and these lay eggs which hatch in about ten days, and the caterpillars 



