Category:Cankerworm

Can"ker*worm`, n. (Zoöl.)

Defn: The larva of two species of geometrid moths which are very injurious to fruit and shade trees by eating, and often entirely destroying, the foliage. Other similar larvæ are also called cankerworms.

Note: The autumnal species (Anisopteryx pometaria) becomes adult late in autumn (after frosts) and in winter. The spring species (A. vernata) remains in the ground through the winter, and matures in early spring. Both have winged males and wingless females. The larvæ are similar in appearance and habits, and beling to the family of measuring worms or spanworms. These larvæ hatch from the eggs when the leaves being to expand in spring.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Cankerworm - Heb. yelek ), "the licking locust," which licks up the grass of the field; probably the locust at a certain stage of its growth, just as it emerges from the caterpillar state (Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25). The word is rendered "caterpillar" in Psalms 105:34; Jeremiah 51:14, Jeremiah 51:17 (but R.V. "canker-worm"). "It spoileth and fleeth away" (Nahum 3:16), or as some read the passage, "The cankerworm putteth off [i.e., the envelope of its wings], and fleeth away."