The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-09-07
0ur Foreirn Cahhare o..

Our Foreign Cabbage Pest.
The European cabbage butterfly CPSe-
ris rapG) is, like many other preda1
cious imported insects, much more de-
structive in this country than in its abo-
riginal home. Our own ''native Ameri-
can cabbage butterflies Northern
(Plerts oIeraceG) and the Southern
[Pierts Protodice) though sometimes
quite troublesome, are harmlessness
itself compared with the destructive for
eign variety.
The male imported butterfly is white.
with the tips of the fore wings black,
busted with white. On each Of the fore
wings there is black spot. The female
butterfly has two spots on these wings,
about two-thirds of the distance from
the base to the outer edge of the wing.
The eggs of this insect are laid singly
on the under side of leaves. The cater
pillar is green, with a yellowish stripe
down the back, and another along each
side, the belly being paler, brighter
green. The body is so densely covered
with minute hairs as to have a velvety
appearance. The worm is often more
than an inch long, and about the thick
ness of a large crOw-quill.
Wherever it has made its appearance,
the rayages of this pest have been very
great, amounting in money value to
hundreds of thousands of dollars annual
", in localities where the cabbage is
largely cultivated.
A number of ways of thwariing the
destructive designs of the PteriS rapae
have been suggested. one of the most
effective of which is said to be hand
picking when the caterpillar can be
seen, and the capture of the butterflies
by means of a light gauze net mounted
on wire ring a foot in diameter, at
taehed to short pole. Where the cab
ba9e-head is badly infested, however,
it is best to root it up and burn it on a
hot fire, so as to make sure that none
of the worms escape. Busting the cab
bage early in the morning and evening
with lime Stacked in water in which
carbolic acid has been dissolved is also
h ghly recommended as a means of
driving the worm away. The lime
should be in the form of fine dry pow
der. Mr.. Quinn has found carbolic
powder (so-called) superphosphate and
lime mixed together an effective appli-
cation. The AzHezicaga B7st0D9etogiSt re-
CARDS pyrethrum as the most satisfacto-
rye remedy SO far discovered 1t has
the further and important advantage of
being a perfectly harmless application
LIZ 81 CcbODd2G COuoQt1CLo rCALC)J III
sects. Bran and buckwheat flour dust
ed over the infested plants as soon as
the worms make their appearance have
been found effectual in some eases.
These last-named remedies must be APP
I p led when the worms are young. A
second application is sometimes neces-
sary. Prof. Riley recommends judi
ciOus application of hot water from a
watering-pot, But only careful hands
should. attempt this hydrOpathic cure,
or the remedy NAV prove at least as bad
as the disease. The Professor also adj
vises repeated applications of whale-oil
soap and water, in the proportion of
| one pound of soap to six gallons of wa
ter. 1t has also been suggested that
trap may be laid for the chrysalis by
placing boards, raised two inches above
the surface of the ground, among the
plants, to attract the eaterpillars when
about to change TO ehrysalids. BY de-
strOying these, and all that may be
found under chips, stones, etc. much
future toll and loss may be avoided.
But all these offensive and defensive
measures combined would probably be
of little avail-so impotent is man to
cope with these inferior fOrces!-were
it not for the diminutive allies which
come to the gardeners aid in the shape
of minute ichneumOD flies. These lit
tie creatures lay their eggs either in
Those of the butterflies or on the out
side of the chrysalis, and the resulting
maggots feed IuxuriOusly on their help
less victims, and do immense execution
| in reducing the numbers of their in
| voluntary entertainers. One observer
thinks that at least twO-thirds of the
chrysalids which had suspended them
selves by hundreds in the early autumn
about his house and fences, had been
attacked by these useful allies. Mr..
! Charles ID. Zimmerman, of Ohio, sug-
gests that these chrysa6ds should lie
| gathered into box and covered with
wire gauze, SO that if they contain para
sites the latter may escape, and the
| butterflies be destroyed. The box con
tanning such chrysalids, he says, should
! be projected from rain but not from
! cold
The male of this parasite-the Ptero-
| 22lalltS patpar1t1l of LinnRus-is beauti-
| full pale-green fly, with the body finely
| pUnctured and emitting metallic tints.
/ The antennae are honey-yelloW, with
narrow black wings. The legs are pale
honey-yellow. 1t is from one-twelfth
to one-tenth of an inch in length. The
body of the female fly is much stouter
| and broader, with an oval abdomen
ending in a very short ovipositor. 1t is
much duller green than the male, and
the body is more coarsely punctured.
The antenne and legs are brown. The
larva is a little white maggot about an
4 eighth of an inch in length. AS many
as thirty-two of them, in various stages
of growth, have been found in the
body of a single chrysalid. 1t is sin
cerely to be hope that these invaluable
{" friends of man may be able, with
the less efficient aid of their human CO.
| laborers, to subdue and annihiIate the
foreign interloper whose depredations
have caused so much alarm and loss to
cabbage growers. T. Examiner.