Qi 



THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 



much as it has been known to feed upon the weeping willow in Eng- 

 land. 



Remedies. — One way of counterworking the evil effects of these 

 cabbage butterflies, is to search for the eggs at the proper season, and 

 destroy them. These eggs are pear-shaped, yellowish and longi- 

 tudinally ribbed, but as they are deposited singly or in clusters of not 

 more than two or three, the operation becomes tedious and some- 

 what impracticable on a large scale. Still, children should be taught 

 how to find them, and incited to search for them by the hope of a re- 

 ward for a certain number. The butterflies are slow lumbering flyers 

 and may easily be caught in a net and killed. A short handle, per- 

 haps four feet long, with a wire hoop and bag-net of muslin or musquito 

 netting, are the only things needed to make such a net, the total cost of 

 which need not be more than fifty or seventy-five cents. Or a more 

 durable one may be made, in the following manner: Get a tinsmith 

 t Fi s- 80 to make a hollow handle of brass or 



tin from six to seven inches in length 

 and tapering at one end, as seen in 

 Figure 80,5; then procure a piece of 

 stout wire, rather more than a yard 

 ^^long, and bend it in the manner shown 

 in Figure 80, 6- Place the ends of the 

 6 wire in the small end of the handle, 

 solder it on, and then fill in one-third of the handle with molten lead, 

 so as to make the wire doubly fast and solid. Now make a bag of 

 some strong but light fabric, and fasten it well to the wire. The depth 

 of the bag should be more than twice the diameter of the wire hoop. 

 If a handle is required, a wooden one is easily made to fit into the 

 hollow brass or tin, as at Figure 80, 4. Poultry, if allowed free range 

 in the cabbage field, will soon clear off the worms of our indigenous 

 species. 



By laying pieces of board between the cabbage rows, and sup- 

 porting them about two inches above the surface of the ground, the 

 worms will resort to them to undergo their transformations, and may 

 then be easily destroyed. 



Either Paris green or white hellebore will kill the worms, if 

 sprinkled on to them, but cannot be used on cabbages, as it is difficult 

 to free the plants of these substances which are poisonous. The 

 saponaceous compounds of cresylic acid are effectual, and without 

 these objections. 



In Europe there are many parasites which serve to check the in- 

 crease of the Rape Butterfly, and Curtis enumerates at least four. 

 But on this continent, but one such parasite has so far been found to 

 attack it, and that was a two-winged fly— probably a Tachina fly— which 

 M. Provancher bred from the chrysalis, in Quebec, Can.* M. Provan- 

 cher, after remarking that he found a chrysalis which, from its blacken- 



*(Naturali»te Canadien Vol. II, p. 18.) 



