THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 10? 



of the Eastern States. The species I refer to is the Rape Butterfly 

 (Pieris rapce, Schrank), a recent importation from Europe, and while 

 I have no fear of any evil results arising from the introduction of the 

 Potherb Butterfly, I should hate to try the experiment of introducing 

 a brood of worms of the Rape Butterfly into any portion of the State;: 

 because, for the reasons detailed in the paper read before the State 

 Horticultural Society, and which is published at the beginning of this 

 Report, I have not a doubt but they would flourish exceedingly, and 

 become far more injurious than either of the indigenous species. In- 

 deed, the history of this insect, since its introduction into this coun- 

 try, affords sufficient proof that such would be the result, for M. Pro- 

 vancher in a recent number of his journal, Le Naturalista Canadien, 

 says that it alone, has caused more damage around Quebec, since its 

 arrival there, than all other noxious butterflies put together, in the 

 same space of time; and he estimates that it annually destroys $240,- 

 000 worth of cabbages around that town. In short, as this insect is 

 rapidly spreading westward, there is every reason to fear that it may 

 Borne day get a foothold in our midst, unless the proper measures are 

 taken to prevent such an undesirable occurrence. It will be well 

 therefore to familiarize the reader with its appearance, for kt to be fore- 

 warned is to be forearmed !" 



Little did I dream, when, many years ago, I watched this butter- 

 fly fluttering slowly along some green lane or over some cabbage 

 patch in England, where it is the butterfly ; or when I found its chry- 

 salis so abundantly in the winter time on old palings or even on the 

 kitchen wall indoors — that I should some day be fearing its presence 

 here. But just as little did our forefathers dream of the immense 

 though gradual changes which have come over this broad land dur- 

 ing the last two or three centuries ! Coming events are said to cast 

 their shadows before them, but verily we know not what the morrow 

 will bring forth. 



This Rape Butterfly is the bane of every cabbage grower, and its 

 larva is the dread of every cook in many parts of Europe. Unlike the 

 two indigenous N. A. species already alluded to, this worm is not con- 

 tent with riddling the outside leaves, but prefers to secrete itself in 

 the heart, so that every cabbage has to be torn apart and examined 

 before being cooked, and it is also necessary to keep a continual look- 

 out, even after it is dished up, lest one gets such an admixture of ani- 

 mal and vegetable food as is not deemed palatable by the most of 

 men. It is on account of this habit of boring into the heart of cab- 

 bages, that the French call it the " Ver du Cceur" or Heart-worm. 



It was introduced about 1856 or 1857, having been first taken in 

 Quebec in 1859. In 1864 Mr. G. J. Bowles, who published an account 

 of it in the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, for August, 1864, 

 p. 258, estimated that it had not then extended more than forty miles 

 from Quebec as a centre. In 1866 it was taken in the northern parts 

 of New Hampshire and Vermont; in 1868 it had advanced as far 



