THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 275 



insignificant creatures is trifling and useless ? and whether 

 they do not lead us u}) to a knowledge of our adorable 

 Creator? Let us, then, following the steps of those who 

 honour God in his works, walk boldly forward to inspect the 

 insect-world. Behold, here, the history, or way of life, of an 

 insect, in the person of a butterfly of the second order. 



§ 2. — Of the white butterflies, four sorts arc known to me, 

 namely: — the large butterfly, Pieris Brassica); the small 

 butterfly, P. Rapa); the great striped butterfly, (?)P. Dapli- 

 dice, which I have not seen in this country, but Dr. Rosel 

 has described and drawn it in the first part of his ' Insecten- 

 Belustigung,' p. 45, of the second collection ; and the small 

 striped butterfly, P. Napi, which that author has not in his 

 work. The last-named insect shall for the present occupy 

 my pen. This butterfly is one of the first to show itself in 

 the spring, but not one of the commonest, as it is not found 

 nearly so frequently as the large and small butterfly. It lays 

 its eggs singly, and leads a lonely life in the caterpillar state. 

 During all the time that I have occupied myself with the 

 study of insects, it has only once happened that I have been 

 able to secure a single egg of this insect. My son found it, 

 about the end of May, on the downs, near Haarlem, on 



a leaf of one of the wild kails I am strongly of the 



opinion that the insect deposits its eggs on other plants. 

 The egg above named was placed on the under side of the 



leaf. Its shape is longish, inclined towards a point 



at the top ; by the under or broader side it is gummed on to 

 the leaf; and thus, like pretty nearly all butterfly-eggs, it has 



the point always turned away from the leaf It has 



twelve ribs, of which six run out nearly at the top, and the 

 other six alternately a little lower. Cross over, in the circum- 

 ference from the top to the bottom, it is banded with a great 

 number of slightly-embossed stripes. It is shiny, and of a 

 whitish yellow colour, having thus, when seen through a 

 microscope, a beautiful appearance. 



§ 3. — A couple of days after I got the egg I observed that 

 its brightness quite disappeared, and that it became dull in 

 colour; whereupon, in about the course of one day, the 

 caterpillar appeared, and in the first place ate up the top of 

 its egg half-way. The little animal was thus of a whitish 

 colour, and, through the microscope, appeared all over shiny 



