248 HALF HOUES WITH INSECTS. [Packakd. 



insects, for they war upon it with a savage disregard of the 

 proprieties of life. The plant lice infest it by millions, 

 puncturing the leaves with their tiny beaks, curling them up 

 and transforming the originally beautiful foliage into an 

 unpleasing mass of crumpled leaves, alive with moving par- 

 asites. Then comes the squads of canker worms, which 

 speedily convert the umbrageous tops into a naked mass of 

 limbs, the ghosts of their former selves. While this work 

 is going on, and the tree, deprived of its lungs the leaves, 

 is, as it were, at its last gasp, industrious borers of different 

 patterns arc laying out their streets tunnelled beneath the 

 bark, like sappers and miners, preparing for the destruction 

 of the entire fabric. 



The cauker worm infests the elm, and sometimes injures 

 it as much as the apple. We have already studied its habits 



Fig. 188. ^^^^ w^l^ ^^^^"^^ ^^ another 



geometrid caterpillar, which 

 so far as regards its destruc- 

 tive habits replaces in New 

 York and Philadelphia the 

 canker worm of Boston. It 

 is wide-spread, however, over 

 the country. I have found 

 it in the wilds of northern 

 Maine, but it is only known 

 The Snowy Angle-wing. iq j^q to abound in exces- 



sive numbers in the cities just mentioned. 



The caterpillar, though confounded with the canker worm, 

 is quite different in its physiognomy, having a large red 

 head, while the body is wood colored, but red again at the 

 end. The moth (Fig. 188), which may be called the snowy 

 angle-wing, in allusion to the snow-white angular wings, 

 flies about in the woods in July and August, when it lays its 

 eggs. In the city of New York the caterpillars hatch as 

 soon as the leaves unfold in the spring, and for a week or 



24 



