24 



the sides and a black margin ; the colors and markings vary to some ex- 

 tent, and individuals may be found with very little red and others with 

 little or no black. When observed on a tree they are usually in immense 

 numbers, thickly clustered together and often overlapping each other. 

 In shape and markings they bear some resemblance to a turtle and have 

 therefore received the name of "the Terrapin Scale." The specimens 

 that we have seen were sent in from St. Catharines, Windsor and Walker- 

 ville, and in each case were found on Maple trees. Many of them were 

 perforated, showing that they had been destroyed by a minute parasitic 

 insect. This scale is widely prevalent in the Northern and Eastern States, 

 but is not common yet in Ontario. 



It attacks a large number of wild and cultivated trees and shrubs, and 

 is especially injurious to peach trees. As it will readily spread from one 

 tree to another, it is important that any wild trees found to be infested 

 should be cut down and burnt at once. The only remedy for the insect 

 when it attacks fruit trees is to spray with kerosene emulsion in the fall 

 and winter or in early spring before the leaves come out. 



The Peach-Tree Borer (Sanninoidea exitiosa), Fig. 38. Unlike the 

 borers already referred to, this insect is not the grub of a beetle, but the 



2 

 Fig. 38.— Peach tree borer : 1 female moth, 2 male moth. 



caterpillar of a moth. Next to the San Jose Scale, it takes rank as the 

 worst enemy that the peach-grower has, and prior to the arrival of the 

 scale destroyed more trees than all other causes combined. The parent 

 moths are very pretty creatures ; the male has a steel-blue body with 

 golden-yellow markings and clear transparent wings which expand about 

 an inch ; the female is considerably larger and totally different, the body 

 being more than twice as thick, of a similar glossy steel-blue color but 

 crossed with a brilliant band of orange ; the fore wings, which expand 

 an inch and a half, are opaque and steely blue like the body, while the 

 smaller hind wings are transparent with a margin of scales of the same 

 steel-blue color. The moths are on the wing from about the beginning 

 of July to the close of summer, as they do not all come out of the chrys- 

 alids at the same time. The eggs are laid in crevices on the trunks of 

 the tree close to the ground, and the larvae when hatched bore through 

 the bark down towards the root ; their presence is usually indicated by a 

 mass of gum mingled with bits of bark and excrement which is exuded 

 from the burrow. As the eggs are laid at different times during the sum- 



