276 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and transparent, stuck over with a few fine hairs. As soon 

 as the caterpillar began to graze upon the leaf it became a 

 little greener; and when it had become one or two days old 

 it gave up eating the leaf anywhere but on the edge, or else 

 it made holes in it. Four days after its birth it moulted for the 

 first time, and shortly afterwards ate the skin thrown off; and 

 this it did on every following occasion. Then it still appeared, 

 under the microscope, quite shiny, as before, especially its 

 head, was as transparent as glass ; and that, as well as the 

 whole caterpillar, set with single, black, stiff, little hairs, 

 standing chiefly on white knobs, and the rest on black spots. 

 Moreover, it had round about it a great number of black 

 spots, following the course of the above-named rings; but 

 these and the white knobs were so uncommonly fine that one 

 could only distinguish them by aid of the microscope, melting 

 away, as it were, into the green ground of the colour of the 

 caterpillar, whereby the animal appeared to the naked eye of 

 a pale green, and became paler as it grew larger and older. 

 Our caterpillar, after having moulted three times more, at 

 intervals of about four days, remained, after the last moult, 

 six days eating and growing, and reached its maturity 



on the twenty-second day Here I beg to 



remark that, at first sight, there is such a great likeness 

 between this sort of caterpillar and that of the ordinar}' small 

 butterfly, P. Rapae, that one can hardly distinguish one from 

 the other, unless one pay attention to two characteristics, 

 which do not at all strike the eye at first, to wit — over the 

 back of the small butterfly caterpillar runs a very faint, pale 

 yellow stripe, which is not the case with the caterpillar 

 under discussion ; further, the spiracles of this caterpillar are 

 surrounded by a little yellow ring, which is wanting in the 

 kind before named, but in the same place both of them have 

 a short yellow stripe near the spiracle. In all other respects 

 tliese two kinds of caterpillar are exactly alike. 



§ 4, — Our caterpillar having, as we said, reached the age 

 of twenty-two days, forsook its usual haunts and food, seeking 

 a suitable place for its coming change; and, having found 

 this, it remained quiet for half a day. After that it spun 

 itself fast, the same day, in the usual manner of the butterfly 

 caterpillars of the second order, to wit — having fastened its 

 hinder end, by means of a fine web, it spun across its body a 



