THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



61 



practised eye would hardly detect a 

 difference, and as for the mischief they 

 d ), there is no difference. Wlien they 

 come in f )rce, whether in the one guise 

 or the other, or, as sometimes they 

 may, both together, every leaf is taken ; 

 and the orchard looks as though &ome 

 sirocco blast had swept it, scorching up 

 the foliage. They make clean work, 

 what " the canker worm hath left " 

 would be starvation for the caterfnllar. 

 One of these insects is known as. the 

 Spring Canker Worm, designated V)y 

 entomologists Anisopteryx vernata. The 

 worm, or larva, when full grown, is 

 ahout an inch long ; varying in color 

 from greenish yellow to a dusky, and 

 somecimes a dark brown, striped longi- 

 tudinally with numerous pale, narrow 

 lines. This strii>e(l appearance is shewn 

 in fig. 1 ; c represents a side view, and 



L 



FUiUKE 1. 



d a dorsal view of one of the s gments, 

 highly magnified ; a, the full grown 

 worm in the attitude which it often 

 assumes when at rest. But this crea- 

 ture is not always a worm, iis its life 

 history will shew. There are changes 

 in nature that rival tlie magic power 

 of the glass slipper; changes more trans- 

 forming than that of the humble peas- 

 ant girl in coarse homespun, into the 

 witching piincess in silks and <liainonds. 

 When this worm has attjiined its full 

 size it ceases to feed, leaves the tree, 

 and burrows in the ground ; going to 

 a varying depth of from two to four 

 inches, where it forms a cell, which it 

 lines with silken threads. Tiiis is its 

 winter hiding place, in which it under- 

 goes one of its curious transformations, 

 for after completing its own tomb, it 



throws off its skin and becomes what 

 is termed a chrysalis ; which, in this 

 case, is a pale, greyish-brown object, 

 hardly half an inch long, and the sixth 

 of an inch thick, tapering to a point at 

 the lower end. Here it lies, like a 

 mummy in its case, and seemingly as 

 dead, until the hour of resurrection. 

 In the autumn, when most of the leaves 

 have fallen, and wintry frosts have 

 blackened every tender plant, and there 

 come those balmy days of the south 

 wind which we call Indian Summer, 

 then a few of these waken into life; 

 but the greater part remain, cold and 

 still, until the return of spring. Then, 

 when the buds are breaking, and nature 

 is rubbing her eyes, they too awake ; 

 and bursting their cerements, creep out 

 of the ground. Not now the crawling, 

 looping, measuring- worm, that last sum- 

 mer fattened on your apple orchard ; 

 but, in the case of the male, a silken- 

 winged, airy creature, delicate and 

 beautiful ; for Cinderella has laid aside 

 her russet homespun, and put on her 

 robes of princely richness. You may 

 see it floating about in the sunshine, 

 moving hither and yon, as though to 

 live were a joy, and joy the object of 

 its life. 



An excellent representation of this 

 moili is given at a, in fig, 2. The two 



Figure 2. 

 fore wings are an ashen grey, almost 

 transparent, an irregular whitish band 

 crosses them near the outer margin, 

 and there are three interrupted brown- 

 ish lines between this band and the 

 base of the wings. In the tip of each 

 of the.se wings is an oblique black dash, 

 and a black line along the border at 



