96 STATE POMOLOGIUAL SOCIETY. 



whitish spot on the front edge near the tip ; they are crossed by 

 two jaj^ged, whitish bands, ah)ng the sides of which are several 

 blackish dots ; the outermost band has an ang-le near the front 

 edge, within which there is a short, faint blackish line ; and there 

 is a row of black dots along the outer margin close to the fringe. 

 The hind wing are pale ash colored, with a faint blackish dot near 

 the middle. The wings expand about one inch and a quarter. 

 The female is wingless, and its antennae are short, slender and 

 naked. Its body approaches to an oval form, but tapers and is 

 turned up behind. It is dark ash colored above and gray beneath. 

 The canker-worm moths generally come out of the ground in 

 the spring, beginning about the middle of March, but sometimes 

 before and sometimes after this time ; and they continue to come 

 forth for the space of about three weeks. Occasionally, however, 

 they rise in the autumn and in the early part of winter, when mild 

 weather succeeds the first hard frosts. The sluggish females in- 

 stinctively make their way towards the nearest trees, and as they 

 cannot fly, being destitute of wings, they creep slowly up their 

 trunks. In a few days afterwards they are followed by the winged 

 and active males, which flutter about and accompany them in their 

 ascent, during which the insects pair. Soon after this the females 

 lay their eggs upon the branches of the trees, placing them on 

 their ends close together, in rows, forming clusters of from sixty 

 to one hundred eggs or more, which is the number usually laid by 

 each female. The eggs are glued to each other, and to the bark, 

 by a grayish varnish, which is impervious to water; and the clus- 

 ters are thus securely fastened in the forks of the small branches, 

 or close to the young twigs and buds. Immediately after the in- 

 sects have thus provided for a succession of their kind, they begin 

 to languish, and soon die. The eggs are usually hatched between 

 the first and the middle of May, or about the time the young leaves 

 of the appletree begin to start from the bud and grow. The little 

 canker worms, upon makii;g their escape from the eggs, gather 

 upon the tender leaves. They are most abundant on apple and 

 elm trees ; but cherry and plum trees, and some other cultivated 

 and native trees, as well as many shrubs, often suffer severely from 

 their voracity. The leaves first attacked will be found pierced 

 with small holes ; these become larger and more 'irregular when 

 the worms incVease in size, and at last they eat nearly all the 

 pulpy part of the leaves, leaving little 'more than the midrib and 

 veins. When fully grown and well fed, they measure nearly or 

 quite an inch in length, are generally ash-colored on the back, 

 black on the sides, with a pale yellowish stripe on each side of the 

 body ; but canker worms of different ages, and even those of the 

 same age, vary much in color. In creeping they arch up the back, 

 while they bring forward the hinder part of the body, and then 

 resting on their hind fleshy proplegs stretch out to their full length 

 in a straight line, before taking another step with their hind legs ; 

 hence, from this peculiar manner of moving, in which they seem 

 to measure or span over the ground, step by step, as they proceed, 

 they are sometimes called earth measurers, loopers, or span worms. 

 They leave off eating when about four weeks old, and begin to 



