6 THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 
Lyndhurst, where it was abundant, Peterborough, Herne Bay, some places in the Isle of Thanet, 
Moreton in Devonshire. The New Forest is also mentioned as one of the places where it was 
formerly taken in abundance, as well as Chelsea, Muswell Hill, and other localities near London. 
The genus Pieris embraces all those white Butterflies of our gardens, popularly known as 
the “Garden Whites.” The name Pieris was conferred by Schrank, in substitution for that of 
Pontia, which it was desirable on several accounts to change. In selecting the new term, now 
generally accepted, the German naturalist may have been influenced by the consideration it was 
probably the observation of the metamorphoses of some of these abundant species (the types of 
the genus) that suggested to the poets of Greece the beautiful fable of Psyche, that is, the Soul, 
founded on the apparent death of the creeping Caterpillar in its chrysaline condition, and its 
seeming resurrection ina more perfect state. If so, the term Pieris, from the Greek Pierides 
(wizeides), the Muses, seems a very appropriate one, of that fanciful kind adopted by Linneus ; 
but now very rarely, if ever, adopted in the formation of either generic or specific nomenclature. 
; the 
The genus Pieris is distinguished by larger and more slender antennze than the preceding ; 
wings are rather pointed, and tipped with black ; and the females are distinguished by one or 
more black spots near the centre of the anterior wings, which are always absent in the males ; 
and all the wings are edged with a deeper and more regular fringe than any of the preceding 
genera. The palpi have the terminal joint as long or longer than the second, and the legs are 
long and slender, and alike in both sexes ; the anterior pair being perfect. The Caterpillars are 
tuberculated, with short hairs springing from the tubercles. The chrysalis is remarkably angu- 
lated, especially above the thorax, where it is rounded in the preceding genus. It undergoes 
the change in various positions, but always looped, and attached by the tail. 
Pieris Brassice (the Great Cabbage White, No. 5), is by far the largest of the genus, and is 
a very handsome insect, well worthy of more careful examination than it generally meets with ; 
for it is not merely black and white, as appears at a first glance, but chastely decorated with 
many beautiful gradations of colour. The ground tone of creamy white, for instance, deepens 
towards the front of the anterior wings, and the hind ones are entirely of a warmer hue, both 
being enriched by a soft dusky shade at the base, formed of innumerable gray specks, while the 
black tip is softened off into the delicate ground colour in a similar manner. On the underside, 
as shown in the representation (No. 6), the tips are buff where they are black above, and the 
hind wings are entirely buff, microscopically powdered with minute black specks, and ornamented 
with a slender line of orange down the anterior margin ; both wings having the under side of 
the fringe of a warmer buff than that of any other part. The antennz, also, are ornamented 
with a beautiful series of dots beneath, which are not visible on the upper side. The female 
(No. 5) exhibits conspicuously the black dots by which the anterior wings of that sex are dis- 
tinguished, and is generally, as in many species of Butterflies, rather larger than the male. The 
male, though without the black spots on the upper surface, exhibits them conspicuously on the 
underside of the anterior wings. 
The well-known Caterpillar (No. 7), of which two broods appear every season, appears to 
prefer the common garden Cabbage to all other food, though it is often found devouring many 
kinds of Cruciferous plants. The Chrysalis (No. 8) is represented attached, in the way which 
characterises this and other allied genera, to a stem of Cabbage, in flower, though it generally 
prefers the trunk of a tree, a wall, or old paling. 
This well-known species is common everywhere, not only in England, but in the whole of 
Europe, the north of Africa, Asiatic Siberia, and even in Nepaul and Japan, though the species 
found in the two last-named places are thought by some to present sufficient distinction in some 
features to cause them to be eventually classed as distinct species. 
