THE WASP AND BUTTERFLY. 291 



up from this new soil on the bank, this butterfly 

 was found in abundance, where it had not been 

 observed for many years before. 



The marble butterfly (papilio galathea) is an 

 equally capricious visitant of our fields. I have 

 known intervals of ten or twelve years when none 

 could be found, and in some following seasons it 

 would be a prevailing species. 



The common wasp (vespa vulgaris) is infinitely 

 uncertain in its numbers. A mild winter, and a 

 dry spring or summer, we might conclude to be 

 favourable circumstances for the increase of this 

 creature ; yet such is not always the case. Years 

 productive of the plum are said to be congenial 

 likewise to the wasp. A local rhyme will have it, 

 that 



" When the plum hangs on the tree, 

 Then the wasp you're sure to see." 



Amid the tribes of insects so particularly influenced 

 .by seasons, there are a few which appear little 

 affected by common events; the brown meadow 

 butterfly (papilio janira), so well known to every 

 one, I have never missed in any year ; and in those 

 damp and cheerless summers, when even the white 

 cabbage butterfly is scarcely to be found, this crea- 

 ture may be seen in every transient gleam, drying 

 its wings, and tripping from flower to ilower with 

 animation and life, nearly the sole possessor of the 

 field and its sweets. Dry and exhausting as the 



