3 
As early as 1869, when this cabbage worm was restricted to limited 
areas in Canada, New England, and New York, it did great damage. 
At St. Albans Bay, Vt., in that year it caused the total destruction of 
a crop of 3,000 cabbage plants. The worms made their appearance 
about the first of September, and there were from 10 to 50 on a head. 
The Abbé Provancher estimated the same year a loss of $240,000 in 
the vicinity of Quebec alone. One farmer near Montreal lost in a sin- 
gle season over 12,000 heads of cabbage. The following year, according 
to Mr. Angus, the entire crop of cabbage and cauliflower in some places 
about New York City, where the insects had appeared only the year 
before, was destroyed. The loss was estimated at half a million dollars. 
An interesting feature connected with the establishment of this 
insect in America is the practical extirpation, at least as a pest, of the 
so-called southern cabbage butterfly (Pontia protodice Boisd.*) in 
many regions. This is accounted for in part by the earlier spring 
appearance of the imported species, enabling the caterpillars to obtain 
possession of the best feeding places and crowd out the less hardy 
native form.? 
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION. 
The imported cabbage butterfly was introduced from Europe per- 
haps half a century before the date of present writing,° and was first 
recognized from a capture at Quebec, Canada, in 1860. It was not 
again seen until two years later, in the same locality. For several 
years after this it was observed at intervals in other portions of 
Canada. In 1865 its first appearance in the United States was noticed 
in Maine. The following year it was seenin northern New Hampshire 
and Vermont. By 1868 it had reached New York, and a few years 
later began to attract attention, as each year thereafter it was found in 
some new locality. In 1875 it appeared in Cleveland, Ohio, and two 
years later in Illinois. By 1880 it had penetrated southward to the 
Gulf region. This distribution has continued until now the species is 
known practically in every State and Territory of the Union, although 
it is occasionally reported as new to some more or less isolated locality. 
It does not appear to be an inhabitant of any particular life zone, 
seeming to be as much of a pest in the Gulf States as in Canada and 
New England. 
In the Eastern Hemisphere this butterfly ranges fromthe Atlantic to 


aThis native species and the imported cabbage butterfly are very generally referred to in 
literature as Pieris protodice and P. rap:x, respectively. 
6 It iswell known that nearly all species introduced from the Eastern Hemisphere are more 
hardy than native American forms and survive conditions which would be unfavorable to 
the latter. In the writer’s experience, the southern cabbage butterfly is more susceptible to 
disease than the imported species. Occasionally the latter returns in moderate numbers to 
localities from which it has apparently been absent for long periods. 
¢Riley believed it was introduced in 1856 or 1857 (see Rept. Dept. Agr. for 1883, p. 108). 
A monographic account of this species is given by Scudder (Butterflies Eastern U.S. and 
Can., Vo) II, pp. 1171-1190, 1205-1218.) 
