390 KEPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



NO. 12. THE PEACH-TWIG MOTH. 



(Anarsia lineatella (?) Zeller.) 



By Prof. A. B. Cordi>ey. 



June 9, 1895, Mr. Hugo Garbers, of Hugo, Oregon, reported to this depart- 

 ment that the twigs on his peach trees were being destroyed by a small worm 

 boring in at the tip. A few days later, Mr. H. E. Dosch, Horticultural 

 Commissioner for the First District, reported the same injury to pi'unes as 

 very common throughout his district. Up to and including the eighteenth 

 of June many similar reports were received, some of which were accom- 

 panied by injured twigs, each of which contained a single larva. 



These larva? were reddish-pink in color with the head and shield of the 

 first segment pale brown, and corresponded in every particular with Mr. 

 William Saunder's description of the larvae of A. lineatella as quoted by 

 Doctor Lintner in his first report on the "Injurious and Other Insects of New 

 York.'" 



June 22, 1896, some of these larva:? were observed to have left the twigs 

 and to have pupated in various parts of the breeding jars, the pupse being 

 held in position by a very slight cocoon consisting only of a few silken 

 threads. July 3 four moths issued from these pupa^. These moths agreed 

 perfectly with the description of A. lineatella as quoted by Doctor Lintner 

 in the article referred to above. 



No further reports of injury to prune trees were received, and nothing 

 more was observed concerning this insect until October 2, 1896, when the 

 strawberry plants on the college grounds, and in a neighboring patch, were 

 found to be very badly infested by reddish-pink larva^ which were not to be 

 distinguished from those that had attacked peach and prune twigs in June. 

 Several infested plants were removed to the insectary, and together with 

 plants out of doors, were examined from time to time throughout the winter, 

 with the result that it was found that the larvpe pass the winter in their 

 burrows in the strawberry crowns in a nearly dormant condition. During 

 the winter infested strawberry crowns were received from several localities, 

 and in every case the burrows were found to contain the larvse. 



May 19, 1897, one moth issued in a cage in the insectary, although an 

 examination of plants out of doors showed that the larvae were just begin- 

 ning to pupate, and it was June 1 before any considerable number of pupae 

 could be found. At the present time, June 15, moths are still continuing to 

 issue. These moths are exceedingly similar to, if not identical with, those 

 reared from peach and prune twigs last July. 



From the fact that there was a somewhat extensive attack by the twig- 

 borer last June, and still no evidence throughout the summer, fall, and early 

 winter months, of any attack on prune trees by a second brood of these 



