380 



REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



THE PEACH-TREE BORER. 



( Sanninoidea exitiosa Hay . ) 



Order Lepidoptera ; family Sesiid^. 

 By Prof. M. V. Sling-erland. 



LMOST every commercial peachgrower realizes that his 

 .success oftentimes largely depends upon his ability to 

 prevent the weakening or destruction of the trees by 

 that king of all peach insect pests — the peach-tree borer. 

 We suppose that but comparatively few of the peach 

 trees, which have been planted east of the Mississippi 

 River during the last quarter of a century, have lived 

 to produce a crop of fruit without suffering more or 

 less from this dreaded borer. 



Several years ago Professor Comstock planned an 

 extensive series of experiments with many of the so-called "remedies " for 

 this pest. A peach orchard of nearly four hundred trees was set near the 

 insectary in 1893 for the sole purjwse of experimenting against the insect. 

 Portions of this orchard are shown in Figs. 52 and 53. These experiments 

 have cost much in time and labor, but no effort has been spared to render the 

 results reliable and as conclusive as possible. 



IT.S NAME. 



The insect is usually designated by the popular name of "peach-tree 

 borer." It received its scientific name of exitiosa, meaning "destructive," 

 in 1823. 



ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 



Most peach growers have seen this insect in its destructive or "borer " 

 stage, and doubtless but few ever seen it in any other form. However, the 

 peach-tree borer, like all the butterflies, the moths, the beetles, the flies, and 

 other insects, passes through four different stages { see Fig. 57 ) during its 

 life. It begins life as an egg, from which hatches the larva or "borer," 

 which has to pass through a pupa stage, from which the adult or moth form 

 of the insect emerges. 



When fully grown the "borer" is a light yellow, worm-like creature, 

 whose general characteristics are well shown in Fig.' 42. It measures about 

 an inch in length. 



The adult form of the parent of the peach-tree borer is a moth. A glance 

 at Fig. 43 will show how easily one might mistake the moth, especially a 

 male, for a wasp, so striking is the resemblance : the unlikeness of the two 

 sexes is well shown in the figure. The moths are of a deep steel-blue color, 

 with narrow yellow stripes on the male and a broad orange band on the 

 female. 



