48 



Fig 15. 



To destroy the leLYvm water the plants with soapsuds, and to check the oper- 

 ations of the beetle sprinkle the leaves with hardwood ashes. 



The Striped Flea-Beetle (Raltica striolata, Illiger). — This minute beetle 

 (Fig. 15) is black, with a buff stripe on each wing cover. It 

 is beautifully formed, highly polished and very lively. It 

 hibernates in the imago state, and comes forth early in 

 spring to lay its eggs, and to enjoy itself at the gardener's 

 expense. Its favourite food plant is the turnip. 



Lime water has been used successfully against its English 

 congener. To disappoint the " flea " soiu late. 



The Ash-Coloured Blister-Beetle (Macrohasis y^nicolor, ^Kirby). — In the 

 Eastern Townships the Windsor beans and potato vines are often infested with 

 an ash-grey beetle of about three-fifths of an inch in length. The ash colour is 

 owing to a soft down which rubs oflf leaving the surface black. This beetle is 

 one of the Cantharides, and is as efl&cacious for medical purposes as the " Spanish 

 Fly." It may be easily shaken into a pan of scalding water, and afterwards dried 

 for medical use. 



Butterflies and Moths (Order, Lepidoptera). 



The Cabbage Butterfly (Pie7ns rapce, Linnaeus). — That destructive pest the 

 cabbage butterfly (Fig. 16 the male, fig. 17 the fenaale) was first taken in Canada 

 by Mr. Wm. Couper of Quebec. This was in 1860. The insect had probably 

 been cast upon the shores of the St. Lawrence in the larval or pupal stage, with 

 refuse cabbages from the steamships. We are indebted to Mr. Scudder for a full 

 and most interesting account of the after progress of the species on this continent. 

 From this account it appears that in 1866 it had spread to Cacouna, where it was 

 taken by Mr. Saunders, to the Eastern Townships, where I captured it myself. 



Fig. 17. 



and into the State of Maine. In 1867 it reached Montreal. In 1868 'a fresh im- 

 portation by way of New York was made. The story runs that a German 

 naturalist in that city obtained chrysalides from Europe, and that the imagos 

 issued from these during his absence, and escaped through an open window. The 

 insects spread in ever widening curves, both from New York and Quebec, till, in 

 1871, the two hordes met. In 1876 they had spread over the whole of Western 

 Ontario. In 1881 they covered the country from the seaboard to Texas, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, and Lake Superior ; and by 1884 they had been met with on the shores 

 of Hudson's Bay and at the foot of the Bocky Mountains. 



Pieris rapce may be readily distinguished from the less common native 

 white (Pieris oleracea, Harris) by the black spots upon its wings. The female 

 «may be constantly seen in the summer months hovering over the cabbages, curv- 

 ing its abdomen and attaching its eggs dispersedly upon the plants. The larvae 

 are green irrorated with black. They have the habit of lying alongf the ribs of 

 the leaves where they are not readily seen. 



