WHITES. 



167 



of the "Entomologist," Mr. Thorncrofc has 

 published the following interesting obser- 

 vations on the subject : " It was a still, hot 

 day, with hardly a breath of air, and now and 

 then the common Brassiccs aud Rapce would 

 lazily fly in. The flood- tide set in about 3 

 p.m. with a gentle breeze, and then came a 

 host of the above-named butterflies, with a 

 few oiNapi. There must have been hundreds 

 arrive within a very short space of time ; but 

 what surprised my friend and me was their 

 alighting or settling on the sea with expanded 

 wings, and the ease with which they rose 

 again. We saw the same butterfly settle and 

 rise again as many as four or five times, 

 within a distance of less than a hundred 

 yards, and with apparently as much ease as 

 on land. They all came direct in from the 

 sea from a south-westerly direction, and 

 seemed to aim for the entrance of the harbour 

 between the piers, though there were plenty 

 of them came on shore on each side of the 

 piers. The shore was covered with a coarse 

 sort ot rye-grass, on which they were resting 

 when we returned home, and in walking 

 through the tall grass they rose in myriads." 

 If Napiy Rapce, and Brassicce cross the Chan- 

 nel with so much ease, why not Daplidice ? 



59. Black- veined White (Aporia Cratcegi). 



59. BLACK VEINED WHITE. All the wings 

 are rounded, and the edge'* entire and without 

 fringe ; they are very sparingly clothed with 

 scales, those of the females being semi-trans- 

 parent ; the colour is white, all the wing- rays 

 in the male being black, but in the female the 

 three principal wing-rays of the fore wings 



are pale brown ; every wing-ray is accom- 

 panied by a vague triangular smoky cloud 

 where it joins the hind- marginal ray. 



LIFE HISTORY. The EGGS are laid in June, 

 in clusters, on the white thorn (Crat&gus oxy- 

 acantha) ; and the young CATERPILLARS, which 

 are hatched in ten, twelve, or fourteen days, 

 are of a very social disposition ; by their 

 united exertions they construct a silken tent, 

 under which they reside in quiet during the 

 sunshiny hours, but issue forth morning and 

 evening to feed on the leaves of the hawthorn. 

 On the approach of winter they quit this nur- 

 sery and build a more substantial one, which 

 is apparently waterproof, and under which 

 they pass the winter, huddled together in the 

 closest proximity, and abstain entirely from 

 food, like many of our hybernating cater- 

 pillars of moths ; here they remain until 

 the expansion of the leaves in the spring, 

 when they emerge, wander about, and eat 

 voraciously, yet even then for some time they 

 return occasionally to the protection of their 

 silken domicile, but very soon separate for 

 ever, and pass the remainder of their caterpil- 

 lar existence in comparative solitude. Towards 

 the end of May they are full-grown, and then 

 fall from their food-plant on the least annoy- 

 ance, rolled in a tolerably compact ring, but 

 with the head slightly on one side. The head 

 is about equal in width to the second segment : 

 the body is almost uniformly cylindrical, the 

 second and thirteenth segments being slightly 

 narrower than the rest ; almost every part of 

 the head and body is clothed with hair. The 

 colour of the head and second segment is dull 

 smoky black ; the shorter hairs of the head 

 are black, the longer ones white : the dorsal 

 surface of the body is black, with two bright 

 rust-coloured stripes, composed of minute rust- 

 colom-ed spots, each of which has a central 

 black dot which emits a rust-coloured hair ; 

 these stripes are interrupted at the incisions 

 of the segments when the caterpillar is crawl- 

 ing, but appear continuous when it is at rest : 

 the ventral surface is gray, this colour extend- 

 ing above the spiracles, which are black ; the 

 division of the dorsal Mnd ventral surface is 

 abrupt and decided ; the gray area is sprinkled 



