THE LEPIDOPTERA OF ESSEX.
83
limiting the spread of charlock, our great pest on the Essex clays, as
it is particularly partial to the seed-pods of this plant, and more
especially so when growing by the roadside. Mr. Doubleday writes,
"I believe that the cuckoo-flower (Cardamine pratensis) is the one
on which the eggs are most frequently deposited, but the greater
part of the larvae must perish in this neighbourhood, because the
fields are mowed before the larvae are full-grown. I have very often
seen the larvae on the seed-pods of Erysimum alliaria and have
several times found the pupae on the dead stems of this plant in
winter. I think it is the principal food of E. cardamines at Epping."
(Z. xiv. 5146.)
Leucophasia sinapis, L. Wood White.
Geographical Distribution—Europe, North and East Asia (except polar regions).
Local in England and Ireland, absent from Scotland.
Larva—Green, with darker stripe on back and yellow stripe on sides. Food—
Various vetches and trefoils. Imago—May and August ; hibernates as pupa.
Much rarer now than formerly in woods ; of weak flight.
Stour and Hartley Woods [Wrabness and St. Osyth] and Bromley
Thickets (L. Jermyn ; V.M. 65). One, Donyland Heath, by William
Tillaney ; one, Markshall Woods, near Coggeshall, by Henry Law-
rence (Harwood). Kedington and Haverhill, 1833-5 (W. Gaze ; Ent.
i. 278). Litley Wood, Debden (Joseph Clarke), Saffron Walden
(Cat. S.W.M. 49). One in 1835, Epping ; not seen previously for
five years (E. Doubleday ; Ent. Mag. iii. 284). Plentiful near
Epping in 1839 (J. English ; E.N. i. 110). Epping, common
(S.M. i. 20). Probably now gone from the Forest district, although
it is said that Mr. P. F. Copland saw it in Ongar Park Woods in
1888. Hainault Forest ("Lover of Nature" ; K.O.J. ii. 110). Rare,
Sudbury, two specimens taken (W. D. King ? ; E.S.J. Dec, 1838).
Felsted (Rep. F.S.N.H.S. ii. 44). Rather scarce, Witham (E. H.
Burnell ; M.N.H. (2) i. 601). Trotters [North Shoebury], "my
father," May 20th, 1827 (C. Parsons ; MS. Journal).
Gonopteryx rhamni, L. Brimstone.
Geographical Distribution—Europe, Asia (except polar regions) and North
Africa. Very rare and local in Scotland and Ireland.
Larva—Dull apple-green, covered with minute black papillae, each carrying a
short, pale bristle, white stripe at sides. Food—Buckthorn, Imago—July till
May ; hibernating.