KllüI'ALOCEKA. 



Pieridae. 



8. Pie ris rapae L. (Mon-shirocho). 



Leech, Butt. China, u, p. 456(1894); Pryer, Rhop. Nihon., p. 6, pl. 3, 

 fig. 6 (1886). 



Common ; but not so numerous as in the main island of Japan. 



9. Pieris melete Mén. {Snjiguro-shirocho). 



Leech, Butt. China, 11, p. 44S (1894); Pieris naßi L., Pryer, Rhop. 

 Nihon., p. 6, pi. 3, fig. 8 a, b (1S86); Stand., Cat. Lep. pal , p. 10 

 (1901). 



Common. The species are indubitably identical with the common 

 " green-veined white butterfly " of Japan, which is very generally known 

 under the name of P. napi. Pryer in his " Rhopalocera Nihonica " 

 (p. 6, pl. ni, figs. 8 a, b) calls the butterfly P. napi, mentioning the name 

 P. mclctc as a synonym. Exactly the same course was taken by Leech in 

 his work " On the Lepidoptera of Japan and Corea " (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond., 1887, p. 407). Later, however, Leech separated P. melete from 

 P. napi (Butt. China 1 1, p. 448), and made Pryer's P. napi a synonym 

 of his P. melete. Leech says : " I believe that P. napi does not occur 

 in the Central or Southern Islands of Japan, nor in Corea or China, and 

 that specimens recorded from these countries as P. napi are referable to 

 spring form of P. inclite. There were no specimens of napi in Pryer's 

 Collection, and the examples figured by him in his ' Rhopalocera 

 Nihonica ' represent the seasonal forms of /'. incide." Leech further 

 says : " Apart from other characters the yellow patch at base of 

 secondaries, on the under surface, will almost always separate this species 

 from any of the forms of P. napi." My observations bear out the state- 

 ments of that distinguished entomologist and I have no doubt that the 

 Oki Islands specimens, as also the so-called " P. napi" of the main island 

 of Japan, should properly be called /'. mclctc. I see that Staudinger and 



