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The Cabbage Butterfly

Pieris rapæ (Pi'e-ris rapæ) PLATE XIV, FIG. 1-5 PLATE III Several varieties of this species are known, among which are the following: (1) The Typical Form, Pieris rapæ rapæ. The upper side of the wings is dull white, occasionally tinged with yellow, especially in the female; there is a grayish-black patch across the apex of the front wings, and a spot of the same color in cell M3, also a similar spot on the costal margin of the hind wings; in the female there is a second spot on the front wings in cell Cu2; on the under side the fore wings are white, with the apex yellow, and with two black spots in both sexes corresponding to the two on the upper side of the female; the hind wings are pale yellow, without marks, but sprinkled with dark scales. Expanse of wings about one and three-fourth inches.

The typical form is dimorphic; the spring brood, which comes from wintering chrysalids, is composed of smaller butterflies, which are of a duller white than the summer butterflies and with smaller black markings on the middle and tip of the wings. (2) The Sulphur Variety, Pieris rapæ novangliæ. - This form is characterized by having the ground color of the upper surface of the wings a uniform, delicate, canary yellow; the dusky markings are as in the typical form. (3) The Spotless Form, Pieris rapæ immaculata. - This differs from the typical form in having no spots. It can be recognized by the yellowish tinge of the lower side of the hind wing, as in the typical form.

CATERPILLAR.-Length, about one inch. In shape it is cylindrical; its color is velvety green with a yellowish stripe down the back and on each side.

Food-plants. Cabbage and other Cruciferæ.

If butterflies were in the habit of forming protective associations, some thirty years ago we would have heard of cabbage leaf petitions signed by various native Americans who were being supplanted by foreigners "plentiful and cheap." America had white cabbage butterflies of her own with most interesting and intricate histories; they were conservative in habits and did not appear in vulgar hordes, but took their toll quietly from all our cruciferous plants of the garden and especially from the cabbage. In 1860 the European cabbage butterfly was introduced at Quebec, and in 1868 it gained footing in New York. From these points has spread this importunate foreigner and, by appearing earlier in the season and having more broods a year, it has starved and driven out of American gardens the native cabbage butterflies; these have fled before the invader to the wilderness and there lead a precarious existence on wild Cruciferæ. Scarcely a quarter of a century had elapsed after this emigrant came to our shores before it had captured America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. The only consolation the indignant American may experience when contemplating this invasion is to be derived from the fact that we gave the potato-beetle to Europe.

This is not a pretty butterfly; if it had been we might have forgiven its presence, especially those of us not having our investments in the cabbage patch; but its black-tipped and spotted white wings lend no color to the landscape. The only time we ever found it truly attractive was one day when we saw it flitting serenely down Broadway in New York city in nowise dismayed by the turmoil. If the caterpillars were neater in their habits we might see some beauty in them, for they are soft and velvety. However, what the butterflies and caterpillars lack in attractiveness is compensated for by the beauty of the egg. This is yellow in color and graceful in shape, and is ribbed lengthwise and crosswise in a most elaborate pattern. The chrysalis is also interesting in that it often takes on the color of the substance against which it is hung. Once upon a time we saw one of these hung against a palebrown clapboard and another against a darkbrown window-casing not more than three feet distant, and each resembling the color against which it was hung. The species is double-brooded in the far North and many-brooded in the South; it winters as a chrysalis. See PLATE III for early stages.

Far out at sea-the sun was high, While veered the wind and flapped the sail; We saw a snow-white butterfly Dancing before the fitful gale, Far out at sea. • • Above, there gleamed the boundless sky; Beneath, the boundless ocean sheen; Between them danced the butterfly.

The spirit-life of this vast scene, Far out at sea.