INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 443 



fered more from it than from any other cause. On the contrary, 

 with ns it has always been a slight disease, and very seldom 

 noticed of late years by writers on fruit trees. May not this 

 span worm under consideration, have been named from the cir- 

 cumstance of its cankering or corroding the leaves of the trees 

 on which it feeds, giving them a most singular appearance, that 

 of having been burned with fire — " Bitten with a cankered or 

 envenomed tooth" — Shakspeare. Or as the Puritans, we may 

 suppose, were not so conversant with the great poet as they 

 were with the Scriptures, they may have obtained the name 

 from the writings of the prophets, Joel or Nahum, and applied 

 it to the Phalcena. We also find mentioned in the Sacred Wri- 

 tings, the Palmer worm, an insect closely resembling the canker 

 worm. Its name implies the wanderer, which is very signifi- 

 cant, when we call to mind its habits. 



The canker worm belongs to the great order of Lepidoptera, 

 and of the group or family of Geometrcc, or Geometers. They 

 are so very generally known, tliat a specific description will 

 not be necessary. Since the publication of the late Professor 

 Peck's " Natural History of the Canker Worm," we have been 

 enabled to form correct notions of its habits. A brief descrip- 

 tion of the insect may, however, be necessary, which is as fol- 

 lows : The male has four wings, and is what is generally termed 

 a miller or moth, of a pale ash color. The female is without 

 wings, and is distinguished from the male by a more robust 

 form of body. In the caterpillar state, they may be known by 

 their peculiar motion, being that of the span worms or lopers, 

 in which they measure the ground, step by step. The female 

 ascends the tree to deposit her eggs in autumn, after the first 

 hard frost, or early in the spring, or even through the winter, 

 should the season prove mild. The grubs made their first ap- 

 pearance this autumn, (1856,) on the evening of the 23d of Oc- 

 tober, as we noticed them in our grounds. Their eggs are usu- 

 ally hatched about the 1st of May, varying a few days with the 

 season. The young worm, after leaving the egg, remains on the 

 tree from four to five weeks, when it descends to the ground by 

 the means of a silken cord, and quickly burrows in the earth 

 and passes into the chrysalis state, again to issue forth a per- 

 fect insect the coming autumn or spring. Tlie female canker 

 worm, or grub, being destitute of wings, can only ascend the 



