90 Bulletin 187. 



these new depredators reached us, we found that thej were unhke 

 an J orchard pests with which we were faniihar, and we could only 

 guess, after examining the literature, that they were what are now 

 popularly known as jyalmer-ioor^nis. Breeding experiments in our 

 cages soon showed that we had guessed correctl3^ 



What ake Palmee-Wokms ? 



Historical notes. — A i^almer is, briefly, a pilgrim or wanderer, 

 and for more than three centuries the word has been used in con- 

 nection with worms to popularly designate certain kinds of cater- 

 pillars. Just what insects are meant by palmer-worms in the Bible 

 (see title-page, and also Joel, ii., 25, and Amos, iv\, 9) is not known, 

 but it is thought they were some kind of a caterpillar, possibly a 

 measuring-worm. In the 16tli and 17th centuries the name was 

 aptly applied in England to certain hairy caterpillars, like our " yel- 

 low-bear," which are often found wandering about.^ Unfortunately 

 this apt application of the name seems to have fallen into disuse, as 

 we fail to find it thus used in the entomological literature of the past 

 50 years ; and yet all the recent, larger dictionaries give this defi- 

 nition of palmer-worms first place.f 



The name has been in use in America for nearly 250 years. 

 Durino; the latter half of the 17th century the earlv settlers in New 

 England suffered much from the ravages of insects in their field 

 crops and in orchards. "Much prayer there was made to God 

 about it with fasting in divers places," says Winthrop. What are 



* This fact is thus quaiutly related by Topsell in his curious old History of Ser- 

 pents (p. 105), published in 1608: " There is another sort of these caterpillars, who 

 have no certain place of abode, nor j'et cannot tell where to finde their food, but 

 like unto superstitious pilgrims, do wander and stray hither and thither, and 

 (like Mice) consume and eat up that which is none of their own: and these have 

 purchased a very apt name amongst Englishmen, to be called Palmer -worms, by 

 reason of their Avandering and roguish life, (for they never stay in one place, but 

 are ever wandering) although by reason of their roughnesse and ruggednesse, 

 some call them Bear-worms. They can by no means endure to be dieted and to 

 feed upon some certain herbs and flowers, but boldly and disorderly creep over 

 all, and taste of all plants and trees indifferently, and live as they list." 



fThe Standard Dictionary gives as a third definition of palmer-worm: "The 

 grub of any destructive beetle, as a weevil." We have failed to find any hint 

 elsewhere of this use of the name. 



