30 CLOVER. 



In each of the above Scotch and Irish observations (with one 

 exception, where two specimens were seen), only one of the butterflies 

 was noticed, and though in all reasonable probability there were more 

 existent, still this paucity of presence, both in number and locality, 

 contrasts strongly with the south-country observations, where it is 

 recorded as literally swarming, or seen for twenty miles, along a rail- 

 way, or, as I have myself seen it, in flocks on a field of Clover, 



Prevention and Remedies. — At present the amount of injury 

 known to be caused is too slight to call for attention. Should mischief, 

 however, be found to arise, one point to be looked to would be the 

 food-plants. These are recorded as various species of Clover, of which 

 the two commonly cultivated kinds, the " Purple Clover," TrifoUum 

 pratense, and the " White Dutch Clover," T. repens, are especially 

 mentioned; two kinds of Mediccnjo, the M. sativa, or "Lucerne," a 

 regular crop plant, and the M. lupulina, often known as " Trefoil," or 

 " Black Medick," a plant with small dense spikes of small yellow pea- 

 shaped flowers, which grows in a wild state on waste ground, but which 

 is sometimes sown on poor soil, or used for sowing in mixtures of 

 Clover seed. The Ornobrychis, or " Sainfoin," is another crop plant 

 which also serves as food for the caterpillars of the C. edusa, and the 

 common Lotus curnlculatiis, the well-known " Birdsfoot Trefoil," is 

 another food-plant named, besides such as may be included under the 

 more general term of various leguminous plants. 



In the notes sent to myself in 1877, such few observations of 

 ovipositing or of feeding of caterpillars as were forwarded were in con- 

 nection with " Clover," " White Clover," and " Trefoil" ; and in the 

 notes of Mr. E. A. Fitch of his observations made in that year he 

 records deposit of upwards of two hundred eggs by one female on the 

 8th of June, on " Trefoil," M. lupulina. 



With regard to the capacity of the caterpillar for appropriating 

 their food-plants to their own service, it is mentioned by Mr. W. 

 Buckler that young larvae were hatched under his observation on 

 Dutch Clover, and these, after their first change of tint, assimilated well 

 in colour with the Clover, " of which they ate voraciously." Mr. 

 Buckler also notes : — " The young larva remains on the leaf on which 

 it was hatched, and on which it begins to feed, only wandering to 

 another leaf when too many larvre happen to be together. It is very 

 quiet, and sits still and eats white transparent blotches on the leaf." 

 Again, in the same paper, to which reference is previously given at p. 

 28, Mr. Buckler says of C. edusa caterpillars, which he watched as to 

 their feeding habits on " two fine plants " of Lotus corniculatus, that 

 " they continued to feed and grow, consuming a great deal of food, 

 stripping bare the stems of plant after plant, appearing to be very 

 hardy." 



