273 
NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF NATAL. 
By Witutam D. Goocu, C.K. 
(Continued from p. 231.) 
PIFRID. 
Leavine the Papilios, I must next notice the most delicate 
Natal butterfly, Pontia Alcesta, the first representative of the 
Pieride. Mr. Spiller seems not to have met with it yet. Itisa 
bush-frequenter—loves damp shady places in the bush itself; it 
flies slowly, and is very difficult to catch on account of the 
thick branches in its bushy haunts; and, from its exceeding 
fragileness and delicacy, to handle it roughly is to spoilit. It 
has evenly-rounded wings of diaphanous white with a clouded tip, 
and one round black spot on the fore wings. It is the only repre- 
sentative of the genus so far known in Natal. 
The Pieride come out in considerable force, although perhaps 
not being so well represented as might have been expected. The 
varieties of P. Agathina are very interesting, the colour varying 
from pale yellow to almost an orange. I have bred P. Agathina, 
P. Pigea, and P. Severina. The larve are very similar to the 
Pieride larve we know so well in England. I agree with 
Mr. Spiller in his remarks that many of the Pieride, and 
especially the genus Anthocharis, may be only winter and summer 
forms of the same butterflies; but in the only two instances where 
I have been able to test, by breeding, the truth of this opinion, 
viz., Anthocharis Omphale and Pieris Severina, I found the winter 
and summer products were exactly the same. It is true the 
broods were reared under similar influences in my experiments, 
being protected from the weather in an open room or verandah. 
Both were theoretical winter varieties, if we take the vars. with 
least black as belonging to that season, and they came out 
similarly in the summer brood. As I said before, the fact of my 
artificial experiment must not be taken as a certain negation of 
the alternate brood theory; and I think Mr. Spiller will be doing 
great service to the cause of Science if he directs his attention to 
the careful working out of this problem. 
The Anthocharine are great favourites with collectors, and, 
speaking from my own experience, amply repay the long walk you 
may take to get to their haunts; for, although they are very local, 
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