92 Bulletin 187. 



now known as army-worms, grasshoppers, canker-worms, cicadas 

 and tent-caterpillars were the principal depredators. But in those 

 days they w^ere variously and indiscriminately named canker-worms, 

 palmer-worms and caterpillars."^ As the ministers during those 

 years of devastation by droughts and insects, made much homiletic 

 use of the passage from Joel (see title-page) it is no wonder these 

 familiar names were thus often and indiscriminately applied. This 

 confusion of these names continued for many years, in fact, it was 

 not until about 1800 that the name caiiker-worm and jpaliner-worm 

 were restricted to certain insects and given their present signification 

 in the United States. 



Present application of the name.— So far as we can glean 

 from the world's entomological literature the ivdivnQ palmer-worm is 

 not in common use anywhere to designate any particular kind of 

 an insect, except in the United States, where it has become restricted 

 to one of the small moths or Tineids whose little caterpillars work 

 on trees in much the same manner as canker-worms. The special 

 characteristics of this little insect pest will now be considered. 



Characteristics of the Palmer- Worm. 



This insect passes through four distinct stages during its life- 

 cycle — the egg from which hatches the larva or caterpillar^ which 

 transforms through the jnijoa, into the adult or moth. As one is 

 not likely to meet with the e^'g or pupal stages of the insect, only the 

 caterpillar or palmer-worm stage and the moth will be described 

 here. 



The caterpillar or palmer-wornio — The pest does all of its 

 destructive work in this stage of its life. Even when full-grown, 

 this palmer-worm is quite a small, slender caterpillar, measuring 

 only about half an inch in length ; it is shown natural size in the 

 apple on the title-page and in the lower corner of figure 25. Its 



*The name canker-ioorm was used as early as 1661 (Hull's Diar}^ in Trans. Am. 

 Antiq. Soc, III., 203) to designate the caterpillars now known by that name. 

 The earliest use of palincr-worm we find is by Josselyn in 1675 (An Acct, of two 

 Voy. to N. England, p. 117), but the insects were true canker-worms; and later 

 the name was applied to the true army-worm and doubtless other injurious 

 insects. 



