208 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



the parent insects of other borers, unless thickened with lime or 

 soda so as to form a thick crust ; but this remedy is somewhat 

 expensive and laborious, and needs repeating once or twice between 

 May and July. 



A few trees are easily protected by wrapping the trunks with 

 paper or straw and banking up around the collar with earth or cin- 

 ders, but for large orchards no very inexpensive preventive measure 

 has yet been devised. During the comparative leisure of late 

 autumn or early spring the fruit grower can do much toward 

 keeping the insect in check by cutting and destroying the larvae and 

 pupa from parts of the trunk where their presence is indicated by 

 the exudation of gum. The kerosene emulsions, either of milk or 

 soap suds if applied several times during the summer would no 

 doubt penetrate to and kill the young larvaae if they did not pre- 

 vent the moth from placing her eggs on the trunk. 



THE STALK BORER (Govtyna nitita, Gum). 



This polyphagus caterpillar was more abundant than usual 

 during the past summer in the nursery and small fruit garden. 



Early in June, Judge Miller, of Blufftou, Mo., published in 

 the Rural World an account of a small gray worm that was boring 

 the young budded peaches in his nursery. • Suspecting the author 

 of the mischief I wi'ote for specimens, which were kindly sent me 

 with great promptness, with the information that more of the buds 

 had been destroyed than- was at first supposed. The depredator 

 was, as I inferred, the species named above, at that time about one- 

 fourth grown. I transferred the larvae received to fresh stems of 

 peach and succeeded in rearing two or three to perfect state. The 

 moths were of the typical size and coloring, a fact mentioned 

 because there are some very distinct varieties of this species. 



The larva develops more slowly than most of its allies, requiring 

 about two months in which to attain its full size. It is of a livid 

 purplish color with several interrupted, dull, yellow, longitudinal 

 stripes and a pale brown mottled head. When full grown it is one 

 and one-fourth inches in length, and about two-thirds as thick as a 

 common lead-pencil. The pupa is formed either in the bored stalk 

 or just beneath the surface of the ground, and the motli appears in 

 two or three weeks. It is of a grey color with a duvsting of yellow 

 scales, and the fore wings are marked across the outer third with a 

 more or less distinct pale stripe. It hibernates in the moth form, 

 becoming active in spring and deposits its eggs singly on a great 

 variety of plants as soon as the stalks are sufficiently grown to 



