The Butterflies of the British IslesSouth, Richard
Science
The Butterflies of the British Isles
South, Richard
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Butterflies -- Great Britain -- Identification; Lepidoptera -- Great Britain
The eggs are laid in batches of from six to over one hundred in each
batch. They are placed on end, and on either side of a leaf, chiefly
cabbage. Herr Gillmer writes that he watched a female depositing her
eggs on a leaf of white cabbage in the hot sunshine, and found that she
laid twenty-seven in about nine minutes. A previous observer had timed a
female, and noted that she produced eggs at the rate of about four in
the minute. Caterpillars hatch from the egg in about seven days in the
summer. The caterpillar (Plate 5) when full grown is green tinged with
blue or grey above, and greenish beneath. There are numerous short
whitish hairs arising from little warts on the back and sides; the lines
are yellow. The caterpillars feed in July, and sometimes again in
September and October, on all plants of the cabbage tribe, and also on
tropæolum and mignonette. A number of these caterpillars may often be
seen crowded together on a cabbage leaf, and they sometimes abound to
such an extent that much loss is sustained by growers of this most
useful vegetable. A peculiarity of these caterpillars is that even when
not numerous, their presence is indicated by an evil smell that proceeds
from them. The unpleasantness of the odour is greatly intensified if the
caterpillars are trodden upon.
The chrysalis (Plate 5) is of a grey colour, more or less spotted with
black and streaked with yellow. It is often to be seen fixed
horizontally under the copings of walls, the top bar of a fence, or a
window-sill; but it sometimes affects the upright position when fastened
in the angle formed by two pales. A position that affords some measure
of protection from weather is generally selected.
Although this butterfly is almost annually to be seen, in greater or
lesser numbers, throughout the country, it is occasionally scarce,
either generally or in some parts of the British Islands. For example,
during the past year (1905) it was abnormally plentiful in Ireland, but
at the same time comparatively rare in England. It is a migratory
species, and no doubt its abundance in any year in these islands is
dependent on the arrival of a large number of immigrants. Possibly in
some years none of the migrant butterflies reach our shores, and that it
is largely to this failure the rarity of the species in such years is to
be attributed. Caterpillars resulting from alien butterflies may
absolutely swarm in the autumn of one year, but the eccentricities of an
English winter may be too much for the vitality of such of them as
escape their enemies, _Apanteles glomeratus_, and other so-called
"ichneumons," and reach the chrysalis state. So, with immigration on the
one hand and destructive agencies on the other, it may be understood how
it comes about that the Large White is sometimes abundant and sometimes
scarce.
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