P I E R I S Nigrina 



Pier IS (pars.) Latr: Stev. Pontia (pars.) Fab. Horsf. 

 Generic Character. 



Antennae with a spatulate, considerably compressed, obovate cliUJ, 

 Palpi hairy: the tirst jomt with basal articulations, (Hoisf. pi. 

 4. L 10.) beyond which it is hardly longer than the second, or 

 the third, which are each of equal length. Anterior Wings 

 with the exterior margin manifestly shorter than the posterior. 



Type. Pieris Belisama. Lut. 



Specific Character. 



Wings above white in one sex, grey in the other; anterior tipt with 

 black; beneath black, u-ith a terminal band of yellow: posterior 

 icings beneath black, varied icith grey, and marked with an 

 imdulated, nearly central, border of crimson. 



Pieris Nigrina. Fab. Sys. Ent. 475. Ent. Sys. 3. 1.20. Ency. 

 Meth. p. 149. Don. Ins. of New Holl. 19./. 1. 



Althocgh this elegantly marked insect has long been 

 known to Entomologists, we believe it has only once been 

 figured. It is not uncommon in Australia, and being a 

 typical species, we select it to illustrate this group. 



The Butterflies called Whites, in the common language 

 of Collectors, (Pieris, Lat.J are distinguished by their great 

 simplicity of colouring, and a predominence of white upon 

 their wings. It is a singular fact, that the various species 

 of this family, among which are included the different white 

 Butterflies of Europe ; feed chiefly on such plants as are 

 nourishing and salutary to the human body, such as the 

 various sorts of cabbages, coleworts, turnips, &c., and in 

 every foreign country where these white Butterflies have 

 been found, plants of the same nutricious qualities, are sure 

 to be discovered in the vicinity of their haunts. 



The group to which we here restrict the name of Pieris^ 

 is confined, we believe, exclusively to the old world, and 

 principally to intertropical latitudes. We have been much 

 embarassed, however, in applying this name correctly. 

 Dr. Horsfield has placed many of our Indian Pieres under 

 the genus Pontki, which group is restricted by Mr. Ste- 

 phens to European insects. As this latter disposition is 

 more in unison with our own views, we have adapted it ^ 

 considering P. Cratsegi to be the only aberrant repre- 

 sentative of Pieris in Europe. 



69. 



