The caterpillar is inexperienced, striped on every side with yellow; it feeds on the Bird’s-foot Trefoil, and different leguminous plants. It’s to be looked for in autumn and winter on the dry, dead stems of the plants named within the foregoing paragraph. We’re informed by Lewin, that it was named the Bath White from a chunk of needlework executed at Bath, by a younger lady, from a specimen of this insect, said to have been taken near that metropolis. One curious circumstance bearing on that is, that a big per centage of the Bath White captures in this country have been made by juvenile novices, who hunt and catch all the things they see, Common Whites and all. The seize of a Bath White is an entomological “occasion,” and the day thereof is a red-letter day within the fortunate captor’s life. From its weak flight, it’s a very easy insect to capture. Truly it is an exquisite and loveable little creature, this Orange-Tip-generally styled the Wood Lady; however this latter title is considerably awkward in its software, inasmuch as the “lady” insect is completely without the characteristic orange adornment, and would hardly be suspected as being the same species together with her handsome lord.
Essentially the most odd form of the insect is there represented, but there are specimens sometimes met with that have the blackish spot at the tip of the wings very much fainter; and sometimes, as in one which I possess, this spot is totally wanting. The male has just one spherical spot on the front wings; the female being marked as in the plate. The female Cardamines has the wings white above, with a greyish black tip, and a small oval, or crescent-formed black spot (a lot smaller than that of Daplidice) near the centre of the front wings; beneath, a white floor, with green marblings, which might be much more sharply defined than those in Daplidice. Near the centre of the entrance wing is a clear black spot, corresponding in place with that on the higher floor, and never shaded off with inexperienced, as in Daplidice. Is so referred to as from the greenish tint that usually borders the veins or nervures on the underneath aspect of the hind wing; however the name isn’t at all times an appropriate one, for a large proportion of the specimens met with have the veinings grey, and not in any respect green; however the fact is, that the bottom colour varies tremendously, from creamy white to full buff, or shiny clear yellow; within the latter case it’s, that the minute black scales which border the course of the nervures, protecting over the yellow, produce a grey-inexperienced impact on the eye.
However the south-japanese corner of England, and extra especially on the coast, seems to be the pinnacle-quarters of this valued fly,-lending probability to the supposition entertained by many, that a big proportion of those taken here have migrated or been blown throughout the Channel; although I consider it sometimes breeds here, and that the caterpillars have, on one or two occasions, been found on this country. Various ancient sources state that the emperor Nero celebrated two public weddings with males, as soon as taking the position of the bride (with a freedman Pythagoras), and as soon as the groom (with Sporus); there might have been a third wherein he was the bride. Both in woods and cultivated grounds we meet with this butterfly commonly enough, most abundantly in May and July, although it could also be discovered from April to August. A glance on the figure of this graceful little butterfly (on Plate V.) will suffice to distinguish it directly, and clearly, from all our different Whites. The remark made underneath the pinnacle of the Black-veined White, as to that eluding the net of the novice, by its resemblance to a common type, will apply with still greater force to this one; for I suppose there are few even of the tolerably skilled “palms” who might inform this from the two last described insects, at a short distance.
The lines are now so definitely drawn, and it is clearly so vital to settle this question on as many varieties as potential, that it is much to be hoped that within the near future many employees will turn their attention to this necessary subject. May and August are the months in which to look after this gem of the Pontia genus. The butterfly appears in May and August, and though in no way a standard or typically distributed insect, is discovered-and sometimes abundantly-in lots of localities all through the nation, as far north as Carlisle; a few of these are right here given. The colouring may be described as consisting of nearly equal quantities of black and creamy-white, or pale yellow, so organized as to kind a marbled sample of great richness. 1, 2) as forming a new genus and species beneath the title of Atrichia clamosa, the nice peculiarity noticed by that naturalist being the absence of any bristles across the gape, wherein respect alone it seemed to differ from the already recognized genus Sphenura. The shape of the wings in these is also totally different, being much rounder, and proportionately shorter, than in the odd form.