402 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 10, 1829. 



FOR THE NEW KNGLAND FARMEK. 



AMERICAN TURNIP BUTTERFLY. 



In Europe there are .several species of butterfly 

 approi)riated to the cruciferous or okraceous plants, 

 such as the cabbage, cauliflower, rajie, turnip, mus- 

 tard, Sec, whence tlicy are called brassicnires* by 

 the French. Their caterpillars feed upon the 

 leaves of these vegetables, and sometimes do con- 

 siderable injury to them. The prevailing color of 

 the butterflies is white, and that of the caterpillars 

 green. 



Several years since I obtained, in Northamp- 

 ton, a white butterfly, which appeared to be al- 

 lied to the European insects above mentioned. — 

 Doct. Charles Pickering discovered one, previ- 

 ously, near the White Mountains, New Hamp- 

 shire ; and a chrysalis was brought to me, by a 

 friend, from Keene, in the same State, in the win- 

 ter of IS27. I have since received, through the 

 attentions of the Rev. L. W. Leonard, several of 

 the clirysalids and eggs, and some interesting ob- 

 servations on the economy of the caterpillars, 

 which are found abundantly on the turnip, cab- 

 bage, and radish, in the vicinity of the 3Ionaduoc 

 Mountains, N. H., and in the northern i)art of 

 Worcester county, Massachusetts. Having been 

 so fortunate as to raise the perfect insect from the 

 egg, I am now enabled to furnish a history of this 

 species, which threatens to become injurious to 

 the cultivator. 



There are two broods in a season. About the 

 last of May and the beginning of June the white 

 butterfly is seen fluttering over the plantations of 

 cabbages, and the turnip, and radish beds, but 

 " seems to prefer the tmnip leaf for the place of 

 depositing her eggs. She alights ui)on the upper 

 side of the edge of the leaf, bends her abdomen, 

 and fastens the egg, on its end, nnder it. The 

 eggs are not laid near each other, and but seldom 

 more than three or four under the same Ieaf."t — 

 TJie egg is nearly pear-shaped, longitudinally rib- 

 bed, and about one-fifteenth of an inch in length. 

 " Eggs kept in the house were hatched in seven 

 days, a somewhat longer time was necessary for 

 the hatching of those in the open air." The cat- 

 erpillars or larvae, which 1 reared from eggs hatcli- 

 ed upon the 27th of May, arrived at their full size 

 in 21 days, when they were one inch and a fpiar- 

 ter in length. Being of a pale green color they 

 were not readily distinguished from the ribs of the 

 leaves, beneath which they reside. They do not 

 devour the leaf at its edge, but rouunence, indis- 

 criminately, upon any part of its inferior surface, 

 through which they eat irregular holes. 



On the 17th of June, one of my caterpillars 

 ceased eating, and spun, from its mouth, a little 

 web of silk on the glass under which it was con- 

 fined ; in this web it attached the minute claws 

 which arm the pair of feet at its hinder extremity ; 

 then bent the head on one side, and fixed, upon the 

 glass nearly under the middle of the body, a silken 

 filament, which it carried across the back and se- 

 cured on the other .=ide : this operation was re- 

 peated till a thread of sufficient thickness was pro- 

 duced to form a loop in which the anterior part of 

 the body was suspended. On the next day the 

 skin, near the head, was rent, Ijy the exertions of 

 the caterpillar, and was gradually cast off, leaving 

 the chrysalis or pupa sustained by its tail and the 



* From BRAssicA,the generic name oflhe cabbage, turnip, 

 rape, &lc. 



t The observations, within inverted commaS; were communi- 

 cated by Mr Leonard. 



transverse loop. In eleven day.?, on the aOth of 

 June, the butterfly burst its pupa case, and extri- 

 cated itself The wings are white, a little dusky 

 at base, and the posterior ones have dusky veins i 

 beneath. The butterflies disclosed in summer I 

 " deposit their eggs from the middle to the end of 

 August.'' The pupte of this second brood sur- 

 vive the winter, and do not produce butterflies till 

 the ensuing spring. Mr Leonard informed me 

 that the pupfe are found under rails, the edges of 

 stones, and in other sheltered situations in gar- 

 dens and fields ; and suggests that it would be 

 well to leave, in the places infested by the caterpil- 

 lars, boards a little elevated from the ground, which 

 would ofl'er a tempting shelter to the pupae, and 

 render it easy for the farmer to obtain and des- 

 troy them. 



BIr Leonard noticed the white butterfly in all 

 the towns in the vicinity of the Jlonadnoc Moun- 

 tain, and also in Ashby, Fitchburg, Athol, Win- 

 chendon, Templeton, and Peterslnim, Blass. That 

 it may, eventually, extend itself still farther is to 

 be apprehended, unless means are used to check 

 its increase. It was in May, 1826, that I found 

 a solitary one in Northampton, but I have not 

 heard whether it has become common in Hamp- 

 shire county. 



In concluding this account of the white butter- 

 fly it will be proper to point out its entomological 

 situation and characters, and assign it an appro- 

 priate scientific name. 



Order Lepidoptera. Section Diurna. Family 

 Papilionidj:. 



Genus Portia. Fab. Ochsenheimer. Leach. 

 Stephens. 



Generic Character.* Legs six, alike in both 

 sexes. Ifings entire, opaque ; anterior someichat 

 triatigitlar, obtuse-angled or rounded at tip, ^enera/- 

 ly u'hile with some black spots; posterior rounded \ 

 with a groove on the inner margin to receive the ab- \ 

 domen, beneath often colored yellowish or greenish ; \ 

 areola in the centre obliquely closed by a straight! 

 connecting nervure. Anlennce- with an abrupt, oh- \ 

 conic, compressed club. — Pupa angular, acuminated i 

 in front, with projecting lateral appendages in front , 

 of the wing-cases. The body suspended by the j 

 tail and a transverse thread across the middle. — 1 

 Larva with a small round head ; bodi/ slender, taper- 

 ing at each end, downy, with a dark dorsal line. j 



Observations. This genus is nearly related to [ 

 CoLiAS, of which genus we have several species 

 in t!ie United States, but only one true Pontia to 

 my knowledge. The cotiiinon small, yellow but- 

 terfly is a CoLi^^s, which may be distinguished 

 from PoNTiA by the prevailing yellow or orange 

 colors of the species, the short antennae, with the 

 gradually formed obconic club, and the areola in 

 tiie posterior wings com])leted by an angulated 

 connecting nervure. The pupa of Colias is gib- 

 bous, tlje anterior extremity very obttisely conical, 

 or not much ^iroduced, no lateral elevated angles, 

 and no iironiincnt tlorsal projections. The larva 

 has no central, longitudinal stripe. The flight of 

 the Pontia is heavy and low : that of Colias is 

 light, ami is sometimes extended to a great height. 

 These two genera, together with Mancipia, Leu- 

 cophasia, and Gonepteryx, (of which I believe 

 there are no species in New England,) arc estab- 

 lished upon a critical examination of the pupre and 

 larvse, as well as of the perfect insects, and in their 



propriety I fully coincide. Schrank and Lalreiller 

 iiinte them all in the genus Pieris, and apiiearto 

 be followed in tliis by Prof. Say, whose Pieris 

 .Vicippe is a true Colias. 



The subject of this communication has a close 

 affinity to p. J\'api of Europe, but it is a large in- 

 ject, and somewhat differently^ colored. Under 

 he impression that it is a nondescript, 1 have 

 jivcn it a specific name derived from the habitat of 

 ihe larva. 



Pontia Olcracea. 



Specific Character. Wings white, sub-diaphan- 

 ous, anterior ones dusky at base, and on the ex- 

 ernal edge, tip beneath pale yellow with fuscous 

 /eins : Posterior wings beneath straw colored 

 vvith fuscous veins, humeral angle yellow. Body 

 jlack, with cinereous hairs above, and whitish 

 jiies beneath. Antenna? black brown, annulated 

 (vitli white scales ; apex pale ochreous. 



Expansion of the wings about two inches. 



Egg pyri form, loBgitiulinally ribbed, yellowish. 



Larva pale green, with a darker dorsal line, 

 ^ery minutely punctured with darker spots, and 

 inconspicuously downy. Length, at full size, 

 1 1-4 inch. 



Pupa pale green or white, regularly and finely 

 spotted with black : anterior extremity produced, 

 conical, back before, with an elevated, laterally 

 ccm])ressed, securiform process, sides of the dor- 

 sum, in the middle, angular, and elevated ; poste- 

 rior part with a central carina. Length eig'ht- 

 tenths of an inch. 



Habitat (natural unknown ;) on the leaves of 

 Bkassica Rapa, B. Oleracea, and Raphasancs 

 sctivvs, in New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. 



In a speculative point of view Pontia oleracea 

 h exceedingly interesting to the naturalist, and a 

 valuable addition to the American -Fauna. It is, 

 undoubtedly, an American insect, and sufliciently 

 distinct from the European species of the same 

 genus. Having, like them, an appetency for the 

 cruciferous oleraceous plants (Tetradynamia sili- 

 quosa,) it has fixed itself upon the turnip, cabbage, 

 and radisli, which are not natives of tJie United 

 States. On what, then, did the insect subsist be- 

 fore these vegetables were introduced by the An- 

 glo-Americans .' It is to be hoped that those bot- 

 anists, who may have it in their power, will care- 

 fully look for the larvfe on the cruciferous plants 

 of the elevated regions of New Hampshire, in the 

 months of May and September. 



T. W. HARRIS. 



Milton, Mass. June 30, 1829. 



* Tlie cliaracters in italics are extracted from IMr Children's 

 translation of Ochsenheimer's g^enera. 



CHLORIDE OF LIME. 



The last number of Silliman's Journal, contains 

 a very interesting notice of the manufacture and 

 uses of the chloride of lime, by G. W. Carpenter, 

 chemist, of Philadeli)hia. We present to our read- 

 ers, an abstract of this article, as one of the best 

 evidences of the progress of American Manufac- 

 tures, and the immense contributions of modern 

 chemistry to the means of health and comfort. 



The chloride of lime, is manufactured on a 

 very large scale at the Maryland Chemical Works, 

 and also by the New York Chemical Manu- 

 facturing Company ; and both articles are pro- 

 nounced to be fully etpial to the best imported. 



It has for many years been used in bleaching ; 

 hence its common name bleaching salts ; but 

 some of its most valuable properties have been 

 but recently discovered. 



The first property for which it is distinguished, 



