77 



black 



Fig. 46. 



line before the frinere. 



The 



lateral on joint 3 are black, on joints 2, 4, and 11 russet, the rest yellow; the 

 second laterals black throughout, the lowest row greenish , head bilobed, black, 

 vvith short black spines on vertices. After the third moult the larvge vary great- 

 ly both in colour of body and spines. Some are black, finely specked with yellow- 

 ish ; others are yellow-brown, specked with yellow tubercles ; others gray -brown 

 with indistinct reddish lines between the spines on the dorsal and two lateral 

 rows, and much tuberculated ; others are black with fulvous stripes and profusely 

 covered with yellowish tuberculated spots and points. The spines vary from 

 black to fulvous and green and yellow. (French). Feeds on elm, basswood, hop, 

 nettle and false nettle. 



Grapta comma, Harris, closely resembles the preceding species but is 

 smaller, and the wings are not so decidedly falcate, Food plants the same. 



11. The Spring Canker Worm, Anisopteryx ver7iata,'Peck, Order Lepidop- 

 tera, Family Phalsenidse. — Late in autumn when the leaves have fallen and the 

 insect tribes have almost entirely disappeared, this fragile looking moth. Fig. 46, 



may be seen flying slowly through the de- 

 serted woods. " The fore wings of the male 

 are ash -coloured and semitransparent, with a 

 broken whitish band crossing the wings near 

 the outer margin, and three interrupted 

 brownish lines between that and the base. 

 There is an oblique black dash near the tip 

 of the fore wings and a nearly continuous 

 hind wings are plain, pale ash-coloured, or 

 very light gray, with a dusky dot about the middle of each." (Saunders.) 



A second species, A pometaria, Fig. 47, very closely resembles vernata, but 

 the wiugs are less transparent and are a little darker in colour, and the hind 

 wings are generally crossed by a white band, 

 wingless. The eggs are deposited in masses, 

 generally in crevices in the bark. The larvas 

 vary in colour from greenish yellow to gray 

 and dark brown. When fully grown they 

 leave the trees by creeping down or else lower 

 themselves by means of a silken thread and 

 enter the ground to change to chrysalis. The 

 moths generally emerge late in the fall, but some individuals do not appear until 

 spring. To prevent the females creeping up the trees, strips of canvass or stiff 

 paper, covered with tar or printers' ink, should be applied to the tree, renewing 

 the covering from time to time to keep it soft and sticky, and as the moths may 

 deposit their eggs below the band care must be taken to leave no crevices through 

 which the young caterpi.lars might pass. 



Canker worms are widely distributed, occurring in Canada as far east as 

 Montreal at least. They feed on many kinds of leaves, and where precautionary 

 measures are not adopted often prove exceedingly injurious. 



12. The 'November Moth, Epirrita dilutata, Hubn, Order Lepidoptera, 

 family Phalsenidae. — This moth, like the Canker worm, flies late in autumn and 

 would be easily mistaken for that insect. The body and wings are pale ash 

 gray, the fore wings with eight wavy black lines and double row of black dots 

 next the mari;(in. Fringe whitish. Hind wings with four faint wavy lines. 

 Wings expand about an inch and a quarter. Although generally not common in 

 this neighbourhood, it is occasionally quite abundant. 



Fig. 47. 



