778 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 1907-1908. 



"These insects (the Canker-worm) appear in the spring earlier 

 than any other of the moth tribe— about the middle of March- 

 Their rise, however, from the earth will be delayed or hastened 

 according to the temperature of the atmosphere and state of the 

 soil. They are found under a double form, the males being 

 furnished with, and the females being destitute of, wings. This 

 circumstance necessitates the females to ascend the tree by its 

 trunk in order to deposit their eggs upon the branches. The 

 males by their wings resort to them, and are found in the evenings 

 hovering around the trees. In three or four days after they begin 

 to rise, they are found sub-copula. This office is performed in 

 eleven or twelve days after their first appearance. The males die 

 and disappear. In thirteen days the females deposit their eggs. 

 These they place in the crannies of the bark in the forks of 

 small branches; and where there are spots of moss upon the 

 smaller limbs, they seem most fond of insinuating themselves 

 into the cavities between its leaves. For this purpose the females 

 are furnished with a tube through which the egg is passed, with 

 which she investigates the apertures in the bark or moss and 

 ascertains their depth. * * * Each female lays at a medium an 

 htmdred eggs. The ultimate purpose of their being thus per- 

 formed, they die." 



Dr. T. W. Harris of Cambridge, Mass., made observations on 

 canker worms of that section, which he supposed to be Peck's 

 species, though somewhat larger and diflferently marked. He 

 states:* "Perhaps they constitute a different species from that 

 of the true canker worm moth. Should this be the case, the 

 latter may be called Anisopteryx pometaria." 



The spring canker worm was the common species in the Mis- 

 sissippi River valley, while the fall species is more common in 

 New England, though both species are found throughout the 

 eastern portion of the United States. Dr. Charles V. Riley was 

 probably the first to accurately describet and figure the char- 

 acters of both kinds of canker worms, thus proving them to be 

 distinct species. 



* Insects Injurious to Vegetation, 1841, p. 333. Flint Edition, 1863, p. 402. 

 t Seventh Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial and Other Insects 

 of Missouri, 1874, p. 80. 



