LARGE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY. 187 



commonly destroyed in some such proportion, a 

 circumstance that will lead us thankfully to acknow- 

 ledge the goodness of Providence, in providing such 

 a check to prevent the total destruction of some of 

 our most useful and esteemed culinary plants. 



The larva of the Large Cabbage Butterfly appears 

 in spring, and, indeed, throughout the greater part of 

 the summer, as there are two or more broods every 

 year. 



The chrysalis is of a rich yellow, clouded with 

 gray, and speckled with crimson dots. 



The appearance of the Large Cabbage Butterfly 

 on the wing, in a morning, is considered generally as 

 an unerring prognostic that the weather will clear up, 

 and the day eventually prove fine. 



The caterpillars of the Cabbage Butterfly, like 

 various other species, have a particular mode of 

 climbing, which is either by a sort of ladder or single 

 rope of their own construction. There are few 

 persons who have lived in the country but must have 

 noticed the larva of this insect climbing up a wall, or 

 over the glass of a window. If this process is closely 

 observed, on the square which the animal is traversing, 

 it will be noticed, that the creature leaves a visible 

 tract behind it, like a snail. If this is examined with 

 a microscope, it will be seen that it consists of little 

 silken threads, which it has spun in a zigzag direction, 

 forming a rope-ladder, by which it ascends a surface 

 it could not otherwise adhere to. The silk which 

 comes from these spinners is a gummy fluid, which 



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