GEOMETRIDS. 
51 
ous pest in different parts of the country, as they frequently 
appear in such numbers as to completely strip the foliage from 
apple, elm and other trees, leaving them as if devastated by a 
conflagration. These moths are about one and a quarter inches in 
expanse of wing. 
As the females of these two species of moths are wingless grub¬ 
like creatures, and can only deposit their eggs on the trees which form 
the food of the larvae by climbing their trunks, it would seem that 
their destruction is a simple matter. Still one sees whole districts 
wherein fruit and shade trees have been stripped of their foliage, in 
spite of the precaution of encircling the trunks with bands of tar 
paper smeared with tar or printer’s ink. The spring canker-worm 
moth makes its appearance early in April, and the males may then be 
seen in numbers fluttering against the windows of a well-lighted 
room. By going out with a lantern the females may be found 
ascending the trees to lay their eggs, the males hovering about. 
The moth of the fall canker-worm emerges from its cocoon, which 
is spun beneath the ground, late in October. The spring canker- 
worm makes no cocoon, but hollows out an oval cavity in the soil 
in which it passes the winter as a chrysalis. These two species 
resemble one another closely, both in the larval state and as the 
perfect fly, the fully developed insects being light gray and brown 
with light lower wings. 
Zerene catenaria. 
Zerene catenaria, beautifully white, with black markings and 
dots, is not uncommon in our fields and among low shrubs in 
September and October. It is feeble in flight, and is often quite 
local. In expanse it will measure about one and a half inches. 
I have never seen the larvae, but have found the thin, transparent 
cocoons attached to low shrubs, and have hatched the moths. 
