76 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF 



cinnaii in 1S67, though there is no evidence that the insects attacking 

 vino roots there were this species and not the Gigantic borers. 



The larva can easily be distinguished from the Gigantic root- 

 borers, by having 16 legs as in all normal Lepidopterous larvae, 

 namely, six (rue horny legs head near the and ten lalse or membranous 

 legs, eight of which are in the middle and two at the end of the body. 

 When full grown it measures from an inch to an inch and three-quar- 

 ters, and it then forms a pod-like cocoon of a gummy sort of silk cov- 

 ered with little bits of wood-bark and dirt, within or adjacent to the 

 injured root. Within this cocoon it becomes a chrysalis which, in due 

 time, by aid of rows of minute teeth with which it is furnished, works 

 its way out of the cocoon to the surface of the ground, and gives forth 

 the moth. As with the Peach Borer, this insect requires a year to 

 develop and is found in its different states of larva, chrysalis and moth, 

 throughout the summer months, and it doubtless also passes the 

 winter as a larva. 



The moth looks very much like a wasp and especially like some 

 belonging to the genus Polistes— whence its specific name — and the 

 resemblance becomes stili more striking when flying, for its flight is 

 accompanied by a buzzing wasp-like noise. The sexes differ consid- 

 erably though not as much as in the case of the Peach Borer. The 

 colors are dark brown and tawny-orange, and the male is well repre- 

 sented at Figure 33, «, and the female at b, but as the description 

 which was published seventeen years ago by Harris, and copied by 

 Mr. Walsh in his Report, is brief and defective, I subjoin one which 

 is more complete : — 



JEgeria polistiforhis, Harris,— [nago £ — Head, including the palpi, orange-tawny. An- 

 tennas simple, blue black; orange-tawny above at their extreme base and tip ami below for their 

 entire length. Thorax black ; varied with orange-tawny and bright yellow on the lateral and 

 posterior surface above, and below for its entire surface. Abdom«.n generally with the four basal 

 joints black and the rest orange-tawny; sometimes almost entirely orange-tawny; sometimes 

 almost entirely black; always with a narrow yellow ring at the tip of the second joint above 

 nnd generally with another such ring at the tip of the fourth joint ; venter mostly blank with 

 the tip of all the joints more or less edged with orange-tawny, and with a short lateral penci 

 of orange-tawny hairs springing from the tip of the penultimate joint below, and reaching a 

 little beyond anus. Legs orange-tawny above, mostly black below but with a yellow patch at the 

 origin of the middle spurs on the hind tibia;. All the spurs and tarsi more or less tinged with yel- 

 low. Front wings brown-black with a more or less distinct clear space at base, longitudinally tra- 

 versed by a nervine ; hind wings hyaline, with the veins, the terminal filge and the fringe, brown- 

 black. Length O.tiC. — 0.85 inch ; expanse 1.15— 1.611. 



The r$ differs from the $ ;is follows : -1st. The antenna; are bipectinate four-fifths of the way 

 to the tip, which is strongly clavate and, as in the $ , bears a few hairs at its apex. The bipec- 

 tinations are fully one-fourth as long as the head is wide, and, as well as the entire basal half of 

 the antenna' are orange-tawny. 2nd. Both thorax and abdomen ..re darker, and in addition to the 

 pair el' short anal pencils below, there is a pair nearly twice ;is long above. 3rd. The short hyaline 

 space straddling a black nervure at base is more distinct. Length . S inch : expanse 1.10 inch. 



Described from 1 ,? 1 ? bred July 8th— 16th, from grape roots, and others captured during 

 Ausrusl at Kirkwood, Mo. It is remarkable thatalthough Dr. Harris chronicles in his correspond- 

 dence with Dr. LeBaron, as .a. notable event, his having captured an /Egeria with pectinate anten- 

 na; in New England in IS50, * in 1854, when for the first time he described the moth of our Grape- 



*H»rris correspondence, p. 262. 



