XX vi Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



root ; examples of the insects from the egg to the imago ; 

 description of the life history and the resulting tree de- 

 struction. ' ' 



After describing the varieties of the 8. exitiosa and the difference 

 between them and the S. opalescens, giving the history of the insects 

 and Beutenmueller's classification, examples were exhibited of the 

 eggs on the bark of the tree, on the gum from the base of the tree, 

 on leaves from the lower limbs of trees, and one on a trumpet vine 

 leaf that grew a foot from the base of a tree, all of which were ob- 

 served as they were laid and immediately collected, the collection hav- 

 ing been made at the Mountainboro orchard, Mountainboro, Alabama, 

 and at Gadsden, Alabama, between the first and the fifth of Septem- 

 ber, 1911. The exit of the larvae from these eggs was observed to be 

 from seven to nine days, the time of the one laid on the trumpet vine 

 was eight days. 



For four successive seasons the life period of the insect had been 

 carefully noted at Mountainboro, and it was found to confirm for 

 northern Alabama the observations of Porter, Starnes and Sherman 

 for Georgia and North Carolina, and shows that in the Southern Alle- 

 ghany peach belt pupation begins about the first of August and the 

 moth appears the last week in the same month. In 1908, August 4th, 

 as many full grown borers were captured in this orchard of 15,000 

 trees as there were cocoons, the total number being 1,100. August 

 7th, 300 cocoons were captured and as many borers destroyed. In 

 this same orchard 8,500 cocoons were taken from the trees between 

 the 20th and 24th of August, in 1910. Two hundred of these cocoons 

 were placed in a wire cage on a southern covered porch. From these 

 25 moths emerged previous to September 5th, 46 between the 5th 

 and the 8th, inclusive, 29 between the 9th and the 13th, and after this 

 only two, one male the 16th, and another the 21st. The remainder 

 failed to develop. 



Observations on the moths in the cage were that their activity de- 

 pends greatly upon the temperature; with it below 70° F. they are 

 very quiet, and very active when it is above 80° F. At night they 

 sleep with their antennae spread rather wide, some with the winga 

 moderately spread, usually, however, with the wings near the body 

 as when at rest, and the male with the tip of the abdomen strongly 

 turned upward. When awake and alert the antennae were erect and 

 near together as if indicating the facial expression of the insect. At 

 night they took no notice of an electric light right above them when 

 it was turned on and off. Thus caged they lived only three or four 

 days. 



The 28th of August, 1911, fifty infested trees were examined. From 

 the half of the cocoons the moths had escaped. During the examina- 

 tion only one borer was found which had not yet begun its cocoon. 

 Throughout the orchard the moths were numerous, and in greater 

 numbers from the first to the fifth of September. On September 13th 



