SB 

 818 

 C578 

 ENT 



Circular No. 1 7, Second Series. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



THE PEACH-TREE BORER. 



(SiiiiiiiiKi c.rltlosd Say.) 



Fig. 1. — munniiiu cxiliom: a, adult female; b, adult male; c, full- 

 grown larva ; d, female pupa ; e, male pupa ; f, pupa skin 

 extruded partially from cocoon — all natural size (original). 



OENERAI. APl'EAKAXCE AXl) ArETIIOD OF WORK. 



The brownish, gummy exudations, more or less soiled with earth 

 and the larval excrement, about the bases of peach trees, and also, to 

 a less extent, of the cherry and plum, are familiar to all growers of 

 these fruits. These exuditions indicate the presence of tlie peach-tree 

 borer, which undergoes its development just within the bark, mining 

 between the bark and the sapwood, often completely girdling and 

 causing the death of trees, and always greatly injuring and weakening 

 them. The parent of this larva is not often seen. It is a very slender, 

 dark-blue moth, wasp-like in appearance, and presenting remarkable 

 dili'erences between the two sexes. The mimicking of the wasp is 

 esjDecially noticeable in the case of the iiinlc insect, the wings of wliich 

 {'.re transparent, bordered with steel-blue, which is the general color of 

 the body in both sexes. The fore-wings of the female are blue and 

 clothed with scales, while the hiud-wiugs are transparent, resembling 

 those of the male. The middle of the abdomen of the female is 

 mai-ked by a broad orange band. The male expands about one inch 

 and the female an inch and a half or more. 

 151G3— No. 17— OG m 



