214 The Museum Gazette 



It might not be in practice very difficult to exterminate 

 these caterpillars. Attempts have hitherto been very un- 

 scientifically directed. They have been picked off the leaves 

 by regiments of women or children, fowls have been enclosed 

 on the plot, and various sprays have been tried. All such 

 expedients incur the fatal caution of too late. The war 

 should begin with the egg-layer. The butterflies are very 

 fond of lavender. 



A friend of ours, who had both lavender bushes and a 

 cabbage field, showed his gardener a batch of butterfly's eggs 

 on the under-surface of a cabbage leaf. They were for his 

 edification put under a two-inch objective, and looked formid- 

 able enough. The man was made to count them, and was 

 then supplied with a net. During the next few days more 

 than two hundred " whites " perished. 



Memoranda concerning the Cabbage-White 

 Butterflies. 



There are three British species : Large white {Pieris brassicce) y 

 small white {Pieris rapce\ green-veined white {Pieris napi). Of these 

 the large white is the most destructive and the green-veined the 

 least. 



The points of distinction between them are admirably summed 

 up in Miss Ormerod's well-known "Manual of Injurious Insects," 1 

 as follows : — 



" Eggs. — The 'large white 'lays its eggs in clusters, the two other 

 kinds lay them singly. 



" Caterpillars. — The caterpillar of the 'large white' is bluish-green 

 above, with three lines of yellow, and is spotted with black, also has 

 tufts or a sprinkling of hairs. The caterpillars of the two other kinds 

 are green, but have no black blotches, also they are velvety. These 

 two kinds differ from each other in the 'small white 3 having three 

 yellow lines, and the ' veined white ' having a row along each side of 

 red or reddish-yellow breathing pores. 



" Chrysalids. — The chrysalis of the ' large white ' is pale greenish, 

 spotted with black ; of the ' small white,' fleshy-brown, freckled with 

 black, and of the ' green-veined white,' pale greenish white, or yellow 

 and freckled, with each end brown. 



1 Second Edition, 1890, Messrs. West, Newman and Co., 5s. 



