130 WHITE BUTTERFLIES 



guished by the black tips to her fore-wings being much 

 larger than those of her consort, and she bears in 

 addition two circular black spots near the middle of 

 each fore-wing. In the Small White the black tips to 

 the fore-wings amount to little more than smudges, 

 the male sometimes — not always — showing a small 

 black spot, a mere dot, in the middle of the fore- wing, 

 where his mate carries two spots. 



There are two broods of both species every year, 

 the first appearing in May or June from caterpillars 

 which, bred in the previous summer, passed the winter 

 as chrysalids ; the second flight coming forth in August 

 or September. It is, of course, in the caterpillar stage 

 that these pretty insects work mischief, and the damage 

 would be infinitely more serious were it not for birds of 

 many kinds that prey on them. Take note of this, ye 

 market-gardeners and fruit-growers in general. If toll 

 be taken by small birds, as indeed it is, of your cherries 

 and strawberries, such fruit crops only suffer when they 

 are ripe, and that happens but once a year ; whereas 

 the caterpillars of the Large and Small Whites swarm 

 twice a year in such hordes as defy hand-picking and 

 would render it impossible to grow cabbages and their 

 kin out of doors but for the diligence of the bird police. 

 Even the common house-sparrow does his bit. 



More insidious in attack than the birds is another 

 enemy of the white butterflies, a small ichneumon fly, 

 to wit Apanteles glomeratus. This diminutive member 

 of a bloodthirsty race has long been known to ento- 

 mologists ; but, until quite recently, one scientific writer 

 (it might be more accurate to say one writer on science) 



