348 



County, Me., where it destroyed both fruit and forest trees. In 

 other parts of New England, also, its ravages were quite exten- 

 sive, as I have learned from verbal accounts. It was then called 

 the Palmer Worm. I can find no evidence of its appearance 

 between that year and the present. 



Dr. T. W. Harris, of Cambridge, first noticed it on June 10th, 

 of the present year, in his garden, and I can find no account of 

 its appearance earlier than this, this year. Its general advent 

 through New England was not very noticeable until about the 

 20th. The following are the localities where it has been noticed, 

 and where its ravages were particularly extensive : 



The central and eastern portion of New York State ; the adja- 

 cent portions of Vermont ; Salisbury and New Haven, Conn. ; 

 and the valley of the Connecticut and Housatonic Rivers ; New 

 Boston and Keene, N. H. ; Providence, R. I. ; and the north- 

 eastern section of Massachusetts. I notice these places or local- 

 ities particularly, since the devastations were there very marked ; 

 and in some of them the worms not only ate the leaves of the 

 trees, but afterwards devoured the young fruit. In some places 

 they have made such a complete sweep that the orchards look as 

 though a fearful blight had passed over them. I have made con- 

 siderable search to learn if they have been particularly numerous 

 in their original and former locality, Cumberland County, Me., but 

 I have been able to obtain no information from that quarter. 



It is so long since their last appearance, that probably few 

 people are living who recollect them ; and, hence, agriculturists 

 supposing them to be a new scourge, closely allied to the canker- 

 worm, have given them the name Canker-worm, jr. The Zoolo- 

 gical relations of this insect, however, are quite different. It 

 belongs to the genus Rhinosia {Chcetochilus) ; and Dr. Harris, 

 who has studied it in all its conditions, pronounces it an unde- 

 scribed species, and has proposed for it the elegant name pome- 

 tella ; it will be, therefore, Chcetochilus pomelella, and this is its 

 scientific announcement ; the Zoological details by Dr. Harris, 

 are appended. 



The worm grows to the length of half an inch, is of a pale, 

 green color, with two slender brown lines along the top of the 



