The Peach-Tkke Borer. 



191 



* * 



live for three or four days in cages before we killed tliein, but there 

 seems to be uo definite data as to how Ioup- tliev live. i)rol)al)lv it is 

 not more than a week. 



Oviposition^ and description of the egg. — The moths may copu- 

 late very soon after they emei-ge from the pupa ; copulation may 

 last for half an hour or more, and we have seen a mated pair fiy 

 from tree to tree meanwdiile, Our experience, like that of others, 

 indicates that the sexes will not mate when confined in cages. Egg- 

 lav ins: mav bei>:in in three or four hours 

 after the females emerge. Smith (1897) 

 states that if the eggs are not fertilized 

 by the male within twenty-four hours, 

 the females lay them unfertilized to get 

 rid of them ; these eggs do not hatch, 

 however. The eggs are laid in the day- 

 time, usually, it is said, from 11 a. m. to 

 1 p. M. 



Most of the eggs in the body of the 

 female when she emerges are full size, 

 and have a hard, brown shell, hence it 

 is not a difficult matter to dissect them 

 out and count them. This has been done 

 by some, and the results show how many 

 eggs may be laid by a female of the peach- 

 tree borer. In 1820 " W. T.," of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, counted 678 eggs in one 

 female ; this is the largest number thus 

 far recorded. In 1897 Smith dissected 

 from a female, only two hours old, 500 

 eggs with a liard, brown shell, and fully 



50. 



Eggs of iieach-tree 

 borer, natural size 

 at n; one egg, en- 

 larged at 1; micro- 

 pyle end of egg, 

 greatly enlarged at 



m. 



100 more white or less mature ones ; and in another female he 

 counted 625 eggs, " all but very few of them brown and of full 

 size." In a small female we found the 244 eggs shown natural size 

 at m in figure 50. Thus one female is capable of laying from 200 

 to over 600 eggs. As Smith (1898) states : " Evidently there is an 

 enormous discrepancy between the reproductive power of the female 

 and the actual number of larvae or borers produced," else our peach 



