THE BATH WHITE. (Pieris Daplidice.)
([Plate IV]. fig. 5, Female.)
Of all the members of this white-winged genus that inhabit Britain, this is at the same time the most beautiful and the rarest. The capture of a Bath White is an entomological "event," and the day thereof is a red-letter day in the fortunate captor's life.
On the opposite coast of France, however, and generally on the Continent, far from being a rarity, this is one of the commonest butterflies—a fact difficult for an English collector, removed by only a few miles of sea, to realise, or reconcile with the extravagant value and importance attached to a true "British specimen."
The remark made under the head of the Black-veined White, as to that eluding the net of the novice, by its resemblance to a common kind, will apply with still greater force to this one; for I suppose there are few even of the tolerably experienced "hands" who could tell this from the two last described insects, at a short distance. One curious circumstance bearing on this is, that a large per centage of the Bath White captures in this country have been made by juvenile beginners, who hunt and catch everything they see, Common Whites and all.
This fact should encourage the collector, especially when at work on the south-east coast, to net all the middle-sized Whites that come within reasonable distance—of course letting them off again, if they are not of the right sort.
The wing markings on both the upper and under sides are, though simple, extremely elegant and chaste. The female, which is the sex figured, has the upper wings beautifully spotted with black. The hind wings are bordered with a row of black spots, and clouded towards the centre with a faint tint of the same.