of
the Canker-worm.

[Illustration: 244. Canker worm Egg-parasite.]

Among that beautiful family of moths, the Phalaenidae, comprising the
Geometers, Loopers, or Span-worms, are two formidable foes to fruit
growers. The habits of the Canker worm should be well known. With proper
care and well-directed energy, we believe their attacks can be in a
great measure prevented. The English sparrow, doves and other
insectivorous birds, if there are any others that eat them, should be
domesticated in order to reduce the number of these pests. More care
than has yet been taken should be devoted to destroying the eggs laid in
the autumn, and also the wingless females, as they crawl up the trees in
the spring and autumn to lay their eggs. The evil is usually done before
the farmer is well aware that the calamity has fallen upon him. As soon
as, and even before the trees have fairly leafed out, they should be
visited morning, noon and night, shaken and thoroughly examined and
cleared of the caterpillars. By well-concerted action among
agriculturists, who should form a Board of Destruction, numbering every
man, woman and child on the farm, this fearful scourge may be abated by
the simplest means, as the cholera or any epidemic disease can in a
great measure be averted by taking proper sanitary precautions. The
Canker worms hatch out during the early part of May, from eggs laid in
the fall and spring, on the branches of various fruit-trees. Just as the
buds unfold, the young caterpillars make little holes through the tender
leaves, eating the pulpy portions, not touching the veins and midribs.
When four weeks old they creep to the ground, or let themselves down by
spinning a silken thread, and burrow from two to six inches in the soil,
where they change to chrysalids in a day or two, and in this state live
till late in the fall, or until the early spring, when they assume the
imago or moth form. The sexes then unite, and the eggs are deposited for
the next generation.

The Canker worm is widely distributed, though its ravages used to be
confined mostly to the immediate vicinity of Boston. We have seen
specimens of the moth from Illinois. Riley has found it in Missouri.

[Illustration: 245. Abraxas ribearia.]

The Abraxas ribearia of Fitch (Fig. 245, moth), the well-known Currant
worm, defoliates whole rows of currant bushes. This pretty caterpillar
may be easily known by its body being of a deep golden color, spotted
with black.