78 DECIDUOUS FRUIT INSECTS AND INSECTICIDES. 
are active and jump about in an erratic way and at first are aided 
only slightly by the partly developed wings. As the wings expand 
the moth rests for a few minutes until the wing tissues are set, and 
it then immediately flies away. Newly emerged moths, when con- 
fined in rearing cages or jars, buzz and throw themselves against 
the sides of the cage with comparatively great force. 
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION AND SUBSEQUENT NOTES. 
Henry Edwards in 1881 described the adult of the peach-tree borer 
under the name Ageria opalescens.' The description is as follows: 
Steel blue, the fore wings with the opaque spaces greenish black, the vitreous spaces 
very opalescent, with a few silvery scales, hind wings with bright opalescent reflec- 
tion. Fringes of both wings purplish black. Beneath the silvery scales. of fore wings 
are much more numerous, extending over the whole vitreous surface. Head, palpi, 
and antennze, deep jet black. Thorax concolorous with fore wings. Abdomen, dark 
steel blue. The whole of the under surface greenish black, the tibize having at their 
base a tuft of whitish hairs. Spurs whitish, speckled with black. 
Exp. wings 28 mm. 
3 males, Virginia City, Nevada. (H. E.) 
1 female, Colorado (Morrison). 
Type: Coll. Hy. Edwards. 
Later, Beutenmiller, in his Monograph of the Sesiide, changed the 
name of the insect to Sanninoidea opalescens,? and gave the following 
notes on its description. 
Male.—Head, thorax, and abdomen entirely black. Legs black with white tufts. 
Fore wings transparent with black margins. Transverse mark and outer margin very 
broad. Hind wings transparent with black border. Underside of wings same as 
above. 
Female.—Head, thorax, abdomen, and legs wholly bronzy black, forewing opaque, 
bright metallic green black. Hind wings transparent, opalescent, outer margin and 
fringe blue, or green black. Underside same as above. 
Expanse: Male 25-30 mm; female 30-34 mm. 
Habitat: Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon. 
Types: Two males. Coll. Hy. Edwards, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Male and female 
S. pacifica. Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus. 
Beutenmiiller also adds that Sanninoidea opalescens differs trom 
the eastern peach borer, Sanninoidea exitiosa, 
By having the transverse mark and outer margins of the fore wings of the male much 
broader. In the female the fore wings are opaque, the hind wings transparent and the 
abdomen wholly blue or green black. 
The striking difference between the two species, however, 1s that 
the upper part of segment 4 in the females of Sanninoidea exitiosa is 
orange colored, while the dorsal segments in Sanninoidea opalescens 
are uniformly steel blue-black. 
1 Papilio, vol. 1, no. 10, p. 199, 1881. 
2 Monograph of the Sesiidze of America, North of Mexico, vol. 1, Part VI, Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 
p. 271, 1896. 
