LEPIDOPTERS: MOTHS. 153 



Often when disturbed, they let themselves down, hang 

 till the danger is past, and then climb up by the same 

 thread. 



The Canker-worm Moth expands about an inch and 

 a quarter, and the wings are large, thin, and silky. 

 The females have no wings. The larvae, called Canker- 

 worms, the most destructive of insects, make their ap- 

 pearance about the time the leaves of the apple-tree 

 begin to start from the bud. They hatch from clusters 

 of eggs which have been placed upon the fruit and 

 shade trees at various times in and since the autumn 

 before. They immediately commence to eat. They 

 first pierce the leaves with small holes, but as they 

 grow they enlarge these holes, and by and by little 

 more is left than the midrib and veins. When not 

 eating, "they lie stretched at full length beneath the 

 leaves. When about four weeks old they reach their 

 full size, about an inch long. They now quit eating, 

 descend to the ground, and, entering to the depth of 

 a few inches, each makes a little cavity, and soon passes 

 into the chrysalis state. Here they remain till after the 

 first frosts of autumn, when they begin to come forth 

 in the moth state, and continue to do so, whenever the 

 weather is mild enough, throughout the remainder of 

 the autumn and the winter. They rise in the great- 

 est numbers, however, in the spring. They come out 

 of the ground mainly in the night. The females crawl 

 up the nearest trees, where they are joined by the 

 males, and soon begin to lay their eggs, which they 

 place in rows, forming separate clusters of sixty to a 

 hundred or more, each cluster being the product of a 

 single female. 



