104 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF 



CABBAGE WORMS. 





Of the various insects that affect this important esculent, the 

 three folio-wing are among the most injurious in this State : 



THE SOUTHERN CABBAGE BUTTERFLY— Pieris prolodice, Boisd. 

 (Lepidoptera, Pieridso.) 



Mr. S. H. Scudder, of the Boston Society of Natural History, from 

 an examination of a large number of specimens of this butterfly, 



found that it enjoys a wide geo- 

 graphical range, " extending 

 r irom Texas on the southwest, 

 Missouri on the west, and the 

 mouth of the Red River of the 

 North on the northwest, as far 

 as Connecticut, and the South- 

 ern Alantic States on the east."* 

 But while the species is scarce 

 in the more northern States, it 

 is the common white butterfly of Missouri, abounding in many parts 

 of the State, and sometimes flitting so thickly around the truck gar- 

 dens near large cities, as to remind 

 ^ one at a distance, of the falling of 

 * snow. It often proves exceedingly 

 injurious, and I learn from a Missis- 

 sippi exchange, that "there were 

 last year thousands of dollars' worth 

 of cabbages devastated and ruined 

 >£"} ' v . by worms in the neighborhood of 



W Corinth." The paragraph goes on to 



state, "that cabbages could not, in consequence, be had there even at 

 ten cents per head." The "worm" referred to, was doubtless the spe- 

 cies under consideration. 



I have often passed through cabbage beds near St. Louis, and 

 been unable to find a perfect head, though few of the gardeners had 

 any suspicion that the gay butterflies which flitted so lazily from one 

 plant to another, were the real parents of the mischievous worms 

 which so riddled the leaves. 



The larva (Fig. 72, a) may be summarily described as a soft worm, 

 of a greenish-blue color, with four longitudinal yellow stripes, and 

 covered with black dots. When newly hatched it is of a uniform 

 orange color with a black head, but it becomes dull brown before the 

 first moult, though the longitudinal stripes and black spots are only 

 visible after said moult has taken place. 



I subjoin a more complete description of it: 



Average length when full grown 1.15 inches. Middle segments largest. Most common 

 ground-color green verging onto blue ; sometimes clear pale blue and at others deep indigo or 



* See Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1861, p. 180. 



