48 
To destroy the larve water the plants with soapsuds, and to check the oper- 
ations of the beetle sprinkle the leaves with hardwood ashes. 
Tue SrripeD FLEA-BEETLE (Haltiea striolata, Illiger).—This minute beetle 
(Fig. 15) is black, with a buff stripe on each wing cover. It 
is beautifully formed, highly polished and very lively. It 
hibernates in the imago state, and comes forth early in 
spring to lay its eggs, and to enjoy itself at the gardener’s 
expense. Its favourite food plant is the turnip. . 
Lime water has been used successfully against its English 
congener. To disappoint the “flea” sow late. 
Tue AsH-CoLOURED BLISTER-BEETLE (Macrobasis wnicolor, *Kirby).—In the 
Eastern Townships the Windsor beans and potato vines are often infested with 
an ash-grey beetle of about three-fifths of an inch in length. The ash colour is 
owing to a soft down which rubs off leaving the surface black. This beetle is 
one of the Cantharides, and is as efficacious for medical purposes as the “ Spanish 
Fly.” It may be easily shaken into a pan of scalding water, and afterwards dried 
for medical use. 
BUTTERFLIES AND Morus (Order, Lepidoptera). 
THE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY (Pieris rape, Linnaeus).—That destructive pest the 
cabbage butterfly (Fig. 16 the male, fig..17 the female) was first taken in Canada 
by Mr. Wm. Couper of Quebec. This was in 1860. The insect had probably 
been cast upon the shores of the St. Lawrence in the larval or pupal stage, with 
refuse cabbages from the steamships. We are indebted to Mr. Scudder for a full 
and most interesting account of the after progress of the species on this continent. 
From this account it appears that in 1866 it had spread to Cacouna, where it was 
taken by Mr. Saunders, to the Eastern Townships, where I captured it myself, 
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Fia. 16. Fig. 17. 
and into the State of Maine. In 1867 it reached Montreal. In 1868 a fresh im- 
portation by way of New York was made. The story runs that a German 
naturalist in that city obtained chrysalides from Europe, and that the imagos 
issued from these during his absence, and escaped through an open window. The 
insects spread in ever widening curves, both from New York and Quebec, till, in- 
1871, the two hordes met. In 1876 they had spread over the whole of Western 
Ontario. In 1881 they covered the country from the seaboard to Texas, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Lake Superior ; and by 1884 they had been met with on the shores 
of Hudson’s Bay and at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 
Pieris rape may be readily distinguished from the less common native 
white (Pieris oleracea, Harris) by the black spots upon its wings. The female 
may be constantly seen in the summer months hovering over the cabbages, curv- 
ing its abdomen and attaching its eggs dispersedly upon the plants. The larve 
are green irrorated with black. They have the habit of lying along the ribs of 
the leaves where they are not readily seen. 
