February, '17] BECKER: peach-tree borer 57 



depends upon how long it takes the female to find suitable places for 

 her eggs. 



Usually a number of eggs are deposited together when they are 

 being deposited on a tree trunk. On leaves, however, they are more 

 frequently deposited singly. 



Usually a moth alights at the base of a tree, deposits a few eggs, 

 crawls to the side and deposits a few more, or else they crawl up the 

 trunk, depositing eggs at intervals of one to two inches as they go. 



It is of interest to note in this connection that moths seemed to dis- 

 like trees which were treated with asphalt. Frequently they shunned 

 such trees and it was observed that they seemed to deposit eggs on 

 the leaves of asphalt treated trees rather than at the base. One moth, 

 however, was observed to deposit eggs in cracks of an asphalt coating. 



Moths were found to deposit on trunks, twigs and leaves of peach 

 trees as well as on weeds and clumps of dirt. Mr. Merrill observed 

 one female evidently making repeated and persistent attempts to de- 

 posit eggs on the back of a Sphingid larva. 



From our observations we concluded that about 50 per cent of the 

 eggs were deposited at the base of the peach tree, 34 per cent a little 

 higher up on the trunk, 3 per cent on twigs, 10 per cent on leaves, 2 

 per cent on weeds and about 1 per cent on clumps of dirt, etc. These 

 observations were made by following moths around in the orchard and 

 counting the eggs every time they alighted for the purpose of ovi- 

 positing. We found it possible to follow moths through as many as 

 five ovipositions. Many times the moths crawled from one part of 

 the tree to the other in order to oviposit, so that records were easily 

 kept in these instances. 



Longevity of adults will be discussed at this point so that the num- 

 ber of eggs per female, per cent fertility of the eggs, etc., may be con- 

 sidered together. 



In 1913 the average life of females experimented with under caged 

 conditions proved to be 4.3 days. These moths were given neither 

 food nor water, so that this would hardly represent the average life of 

 an adult. 



In 1916 moths were kept in cages with sweetened water, and it is 

 believed that the duration of the adult stage under these conditions 

 was nearly normal. Six females, three of which had copulated and 

 three of which had not, lived on an average of 6.3 days. In these 

 cases copulation did not seem to have any effect on the life of the indi- 

 vidual. 



Seven females, six of which had been fertilized, averaged 7.6 days. 

 One of this number was an unusual moth. She lived 12 days and 

 deposited 1072 eggs. 



