94 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



THE WOOD-WHITE BUTTERFLY. 

 (Leiicopliasia, Sinapis.) (Plate Y. fig. 2.) 



A GLANCE at the figure of this graceful little butterfly 

 (on Plate Y.) will suffice to distinguish it at once, and 

 clearly, from all our other Whites. The most ordinary 

 form of the insect is there represented, but there are 

 specimens occasionally met with that have the blackish 

 spot at the tip of the wings very much fainter ; and 

 sometimes, as in one that I possess, this spot is totally 

 wanting. The shape of the wings in these is also dif- 

 ferent, being much rounder, and proportionately shorter, 

 than in the ordinary shape. This difference in outline 

 is, I believe, a sexual distinction, the more rounded 

 form belonging to the female insect. 



The slender, fragile wings and the attenuated body 

 of the Wood-white give it a look of almost ghostly 

 lightness, and its manners befit its spectral aspect, for 

 it seems to haunt the still and lonely wood glades, 

 flitting about slowly and restlessly, and being seldom 

 seen to settle. 



From its weak flight, it is a very easy insect to cap- 

 ture. It appears to be addicted to early rising, twenty- 

 six specimens having been taken one morning before 

 breakfast by a gentleman at Grange, in North Lanca- 

 shire. 



