The Peach-Tree Borer. 165 



Carolina, and northern and eastern nurseries were accused of send- 

 ing many infested trees into Maryland. Fifteen years later the 

 peach growers of Tennessee were suffering from its ravages. By 

 1850 it had become a serious menace to peach growing from the 

 Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river, and by 1871 it had attained 

 a similar reputation in Canada. It is said to have been recognized 

 in Kansas as early as 1873. During the past ten years it has been 

 sent into New Mexico and California on nursery stock from Ala- 

 bama and Missouri, and has obtained a foothold in New Mexico. 

 Aside from these two instances, there is no definite evidence that 

 the peach-tree borer of the Atlantic States occurs west of the Rocky 

 Mountains except in Colorado. The peach-tree borer of the Pacific 

 coast is a different but very closely allied species [Sanninoidea 

 opalescens).* 



In brief, this native American insect found the imported peach 

 tree to its liking, perhaps two centuries or more ago, and before the 

 middle of the last century it had attained the rank of a serious pest 

 of this fruit tree. For more than a hundred years it has been 

 recognized as a serious menace to peach growing in the north-east- 

 ern portion of the Untted States, and since 1850 it has sustained this 

 reputation in most of the peach-growing sections of the country east 

 of the Mississippi river. At present it has to be fought by every 

 successful peach-grower ifl nearly every State in the United States 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, from Maine to Texas, and also in 

 Canada. Apparently it has not yet established itself on the Pacific 

 coast, and occurs west of the Rocky Mountains only in Colorado 

 and possibly in New Mexico. 



It seems to have first attracted attention as a peach pest in New 

 York, and thence soon assumed a similar role to the southward, 

 eastward and westward. 



'* In 1897, Cordley published an account of the Atlantic or eastern peach-tree 

 borer {S. exitiosa) as the peach-tree borer of Oregon, which had been introduced 

 nearly twentj'^ years before. Dr. L. O. Howard has recently carefully invesli- 

 gated the distrib;ition of this pest and he writes us, after an examination of Ore- 

 gon specimens, that he has "no evidence that Sanninoidea exitiosa now occurs on 

 the Pacific coast. Those introduced into California on nursery stock in 1891 do 

 not seem to have established themselves." Mr. Cordley also tells us that all the 

 moths he reared were opalescena. 



