94 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF 



endeavoring to escape. Those which had found their way out had 

 eaten a small nearly round irregular hole through seed and skin. In 

 many similar cases where the larva feeds within a hard substance 

 it provides for the escape of the perfect insect by eating away the 

 hard enclosure until it is reduced so thin as to appear almost trans- 

 parent, then a very little effort is sufficient to remove the obstruction 

 to the outward passage of the imago. In this instance I have been 

 unable to detect any such preparation, and believe that the whole 

 work of escape is accomplished by the perfect fly. 



"Notwithstanding the abundance of this insect last year, I have 

 as yet been unable to detect their presence or any evidence of their 

 work during the present season; probably the cold and wet character 

 of the summer has been unfavorable to their operations." 



THE CANKER-WORM— Anisopteryx vernata, Peck. 



[Lepidoptera Phaltenidce.] 



• This word Canker-worm has formed the heading of so many arti- 

 cles in our various Agricultural and Horticultural journals during 

 the last ten or twelve years, and its natural history has been so fully 

 given in the standard work of Dr. Harris, that one almost wonders 



[Fig. 66.] 



f 



where there can be a reading farmer who does not know how prop- 

 erly to fight it. But then, new generations are ever replacing those 

 which pass away, so that the same stories will doubtless have to be 

 repeated to the end of time. Facts in Nature will always bear re- 

 peating, and as it may be laid down as a maxim that no injurious in- 

 sect can be successfully combated without a thorough knowledge of 

 its habits and transformations, I will first recount those of the Canker- 

 worm, and afterwards state the proper remedy. 



The eggs of this insect are very minute, measuring about 0.03 

 inch in length and 0.02 in diameter. In form they are not unlike a 

 miniature hen's egg, minutely roughened and with longitudinal irregu- 

 lar depressions. They reflect prismatic colors, and are deposited 

 close together in rows, forming batches such as that shown in the 

 above Figure 66, a representing them of the natural size, and h rep- 



