66 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 
chiefly a cabbage pest, but it attacks a great variety of plants such 
as turnips, radishes, strawberries, lettuce, currants, dahlias, melons, 
marigolds, bush roses, geraniums, tobacco plants, and they are fond of 
maize, feeding amongst the male flowers and also attacking the 
female spikes, destroying the brush crowning them. In fact nearly 
all plants are devoured by this pest. 
The Cabbage Moth appears on the wing in May, June and July. 
The moth has dark grey fore wings varied with black, having many 
blackish streaks upon the costal edge, a large ear-shaped spot 
margined with white and surrounded by a dark line ; the ends of the 
wings are festooned with black, and along this runs a sinuous white 
line, two more or less distinct black circles between the white spots 
and the base of the wings ; the hind wings are brown, pale at the base, 
and have a whitish fringe ; thorax the same colour as the fore wings ; 
the abdomen brown with more or less distinct tufts down the back, 
the apex is distinctly tufted ; the legs are brown and very hairy at 
the base, the tarsi with ochreous bands. The wing expanse reaches 
about one and three-fourths of an inch, the length of the body being 
nearly to quite three-fourths of an inch. They fly at dusk and at 
night ; remaining at rest upon tree trunks, palings, etc., during the 
day. They may also be found nestling against the sides of clods, 
stones, etc., in fields. 
The eggs are laid on the leaves of the plants, especially on 
cabbages, and hatch in six or seven days. The caterpillars, like the 
moth, are very varied in colour, depending, it seems, upon the plants 
upon which they feed ; when young they are always green, but as 
they grow they mostly change in colour, some remain green, others 
are greyish-green, also almost black dorsally and yellowish above the 
feet, below greenish-grey ; there is sometimes a prominent dusky 
dorsal line ; the head is ochreous and horny and the first segment is 
blackish ; the legs and prolegs are all green and the spiracles pure 
white. When full grown they reach an inch and a quarter in 
length. 
The method of feeding varies according to the plant attacked. 
When on cabbages they eat their way into the heart of the cabbage, 
no matter how solid, and defile it with moist green “ trass,” giving 
the cabbage a most disgusting appearance ; plants may be completely 
riddled by them ; when attacking turnips, etc., they devour the 
leaves down to their midribs. When mature they either enter the 
ground to pupate or may change on the surface or under a stone or 
tile. The pupa is chestnut brown with occasionally darker areas. 
It may be placed in a cell of earth, or it may be naked in the soil 
