96 Bulletin 187. 



Its Name. 



Under the lieadinor " What are Palmer-worms ? " we have told 

 liow the popular name of palmer-worm came to be applied to this 

 insect. In 1791, apparently the first time the caterpillars had 

 attracted attention by their injuries, they were commonly called 

 palmer-worms, and it is a notable fact how so general a term has 

 ever since been retained for this insect. It is an unfortunate use of 

 the name, however, for the caterpillars are not wanderers or palm- 

 ers • it would be an apt name for some of the "yellow or woolly- 

 bear caterpillars," thus continuing the 16tli and 17tli century appli- 

 cation of it. 



Another much more suggestive popular name for this pest was 

 applied to it by some Massachusetts agriculturists during its next 

 outbreak in 1853; they called it the canker-worm^ Jr. The cater- 

 pillars are smaller than, and they somewhat resemble, canker-worms ; 

 and the woi'k of the two on the foliage is very similar, hence " junior 

 canker-worm " or " canker-worm jr." is a more suggestive name but 

 rather clumsier than " palmer-worm." 



The insect has been described under several different scientiiic 

 names, and we are not yet sure if it was first described as lignlella 

 in Europe in 1818 from specimens obtained in Georgia; at present, 

 the name — pometellus — which Harris gave it in 1853 in this 



half is dark brown. This variety has received three distinct names (see syn- 

 ononiy on page 111) and is possibly the insect described much earlier by Hiibner. 

 Fitch supposed that tliis moth was the adult form of the black-headed and black- 

 necked palmer-worms which he found associated with the typical palmer- worms. 

 But he did not breed the moth from such larvae, and as apparently no one had 

 done so, we separated out several of these black-headed larva? and kept them in 

 a separate cage. We reared two moths from these larvae, one a typical j)ometellus 

 and the other Fitch's contahernalellus ; this is an indication, but should 1 e veri- 

 fied with more specimens, that the letter insect is simply a variety of the tjpi- 

 cal form; and the fact that we reared several moths of the contabernahllus 

 form in our cages containing apparently'- typical palmer- worms is a further indi 

 cation. None of the moths we have reared from palmer- worms show gradations 

 between these two forms, but Walsingham records such graded specimens. We 

 have thought it best to give conttihernalellus varietal rank in our syuonomy on 

 page 111, but if it can be shown that Hiibner described the same insect, as 

 ligulella, his name must be applied to the insect and Harris' name and all the 

 others fall as synonyms. 



