THE LARGE WHITE 20 



PLATE XVI 

 THE LARGE WHITE (1 and 2) 



This is a very common butterfly indeed, and 

 even in towns you may often see it flying about. 

 Indeed it is much too common, for its caterpillars 

 feed upon the leaves of cabbages and cauliflowers, 

 to which they sometimes do most terrible mischief. 

 I dare say that you have seen these plants so 

 stripped by the caterpillars of " Garden Whites," 

 as these butterflies are often called, that they 

 look just like skeletons, only the mid-ribs and 

 the veins being left remaining. And in some 

 summers these caterpillars are so plentiful that 

 hardly a single cabbage or cauliflower escapes. 



You can easily recognise this butterfly by its 

 size; and you can tell the female from the male 

 by the two black spots and the narrow black 

 streak upon her front wings. The caterpillar is 

 green in colour, shaded on each side with yellow, 

 and is dotted all over with tiny black spots, from 

 each of which springs a hair. When it has 

 reached its full size it leaves its food-plant, 

 fastens itself to a wall, or a fence, or a door-post, 

 or the trunk of a tree, and turns into a rather stout 

 bluish -white chrysalis, sprinkled with blackish 

 spots. The butterfly may be seen in May, and 

 again in August. 



