462 LEPIDOPTEEA. 



the feelers are gray instead of being white. Specimens of 

 a rather smaller size are sometimes found, resembling the 

 figure and description given by Professor Peck, in which 

 the whitish bands and spot are wanting, and there are three 

 interrupted dusky lines across the fore wings, with an oblique 

 blackish dash near the tip. Perhaps they constitute a dif- 

 ferent species from that of the true canker-worm moth. 

 Should this be the case, the latter may be called Anisopteryx 

 pometaria, or the Anisopteryx of the orchard, while the 

 former should retain the name originally given to it by 

 Professor Peck. The female is wingless, and its antennas 

 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. 



It was formerly supposed that the canker-worm moths 

 came out of the ground only in the spring. It is now 

 known that many of them rise in the autumn and in the 

 early part of the winter. In mild and open winters I have 

 seen them in every month from October to March. They 

 begin to make their appearance after the first hard frosts 

 in the autumn, usually towards the end of October, and 

 they continue to come forth, in greater or smaller numbers, 

 according to the mildness or severity of the weather after 

 the frosts have begum Their general time of rising is in 

 the spring, beginning about the middle of March, but some- 

 times before, and sometimes after, this time ; and they con- 

 tinue to come forth for the space of about three weeks. 

 It has been observed that there are more females than males 

 among those that appear in the autumn and winter, and 

 that the males are most abundant in the spring. 

 The sluggish females (Fig. 229) instinctively make 

 their way towards the nearest trees, and 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 



