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caterpiller are similar. As they leave the cabbage when about to 
pupate, if boards and sticks are placed among infested plants, about 
two inches above the ground, the caterpillars when about to change 
will resort to them to undergo their transformations, and they may be 
collected by hand from the underside of the boards and destroyed. In 
case this is done the boards should be examined as often as once a 
week to ensure against any Butterflies hatching. 
Pieris Rapae, Linn.—The Rape, or European Cabbage Butterfly. 
As this noted garden pest has at last reached Illinois in its west¬ 
ward march, having been found at Maplewood, west of Chicago, last 
September, by C. E. Worthington, (f) some notes here on its history 
and the rank it takes as a destructive insect may be of interest. 
It was introduced from Europe to Quebec about the year 1857, hav¬ 
ing been captured in 1859 by Mr. Bowles of that city. The railroads 
that lead out from there soon carried it to Boston and New York, and 
southward to Philadelphia and Washington. From these central 
points it has spread over the country, until in the Eastern and Mid¬ 
dle States there is hardly a garden that is not visited annually by 
swarms of these Butterflies, and where the cabbages are destroyed by 
the caterpillar unless precautionary means are taken. Its ravages 
have not been confined to those localities, but it has been traveling 
westward, something after the manner that the ten-lined Potato 
Beetle has traveled eastward. Mr. Wm. Sanders, President of the 
Ontario Entomological Society, gives, in a recent address before that 
Society, the following facts in relation to its distribution : 
“In 1863 specimens were sent to us from this district for determin¬ 
ation, which was the first intimation we had of their existence in 
this country. By 1866 the butterfly had spread further west than 
Montreal, and east as far as Saguenay River. In 1869 it was reported 
as common in New Jersey, and by 1871 it had traveled east as far as 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, and west to the middle of the State of New 
York. It now embraces an area bounded by the shores of the Atlan¬ 
tic from the St. Lawrence to Virginia, and has overrun the whole 
country westward as far as Chicago.” I might give other quotations, 
but they would but corroborate those already given. 
The following quotations relating to the amount and character of 
the damage done in a few localities, will give us some idea of the 
character of the pest that is upon us in the advent of this European 
importation : 
From a work in 1875 by Packard, I get the following : “About 
Quebec it annually destroys $250,000 worth of cabbages, according to 
Abbe Provancher. A correspondent of the American Agriculturist for 
November, 1870, states that it is estimated that the loss from this in¬ 
sect will, in the vicinity of New York alone, exceed a million dollars.” 
These are, of course, cases relating to its work in the vicinity of large 
cities, and where great quantities of cabbages are raised, but its work 
is none the less complete in smaller gardens. 
t Note. Since the above was written a number of specimens have been taken at Carbondale, 
in the Southern part of the State, and at Springfield. C. Thomas. 
