31 



with the Peach Borer, the Perfect Moths make their appearance above 

 ground at various times through the summer. According to Dr. 

 Kron, they are found about the vines and on the wing in North 

 Carolina from the middle of June to the middle of September, during 

 which time they couple and lay their eggs. The following descrip- 

 tion of the Moth, which I have not yet succeeded in rearing, is copied 

 from Harris, {Rep. Am. Pom. Soc, 1854, p. 10.) 



'The moth of tlie (iiape-vine Borer has a body of a dark brown color, 

 more or less tinged with a tawny orange on the sides, and banded with bright 

 yellow upon the edge of the secor.d ring of the hind-body. The thorax and 

 shoulder-covers, and the fourth ring of the hind-body, are more faintly edged 

 with yellow, or with tawny orange. The feelers, antennae beneath, and legs 

 are also orange-colored; the fore-wings are dusky; the hind-wings transpar- 

 ent.but varied and edged with black. The female has a little orange-col- 

 ored tuft on each side of the tail, and the males have two tufts on each side, 

 the middle pair longer than the others. The males are more numerous, more 

 active, and smaller than the females; they measure from 0.50 to 0.60 inch in 

 length, and their wings expand from 1 inch to 1.15 inch. The body of the 

 female varies from 0.60 to O.'JO inch in length, and her wings expand from 

 1 inch to 1.50 inch." 



The curious reader, who has noticed just now that I said that tho 

 Grape-root Borer was briefly referred to l)y Dr. Fitch, will perhaps be 

 astonished, on referring to that gentleman's New York Reports, to 

 find that no such insect as /Egetia polisfiformis is to be met with, in 

 any of the three indexes attached to the throe volumes of those Re~ 

 ports. It may perhaps be worth while to explain this little scientific 

 mystery. After the term ''^Egeria'' had been aj^plied by the Euro- 

 pean entomologist Fal)rieins in the year 1807 to the genus of insects 

 to which both the Peach Borer, the Squash-vine Borer, and the Grape- 

 root Borer belong, and had been universally current in the scientific 

 world for half a century thereafter, some indefatigable genius, rum- 

 maging among old books, discovered that another European entomolo- 

 gist, Scopoli, had given the name of "Trochilium'' to the same group 

 of insects in the year 1777, or 30 years before Fabricius's name was 

 published. Hence, according to what is called "the law of priority," 

 the name "Trochilium'' has now very generally taken the place of the 

 name "^geria; " and the very same insect which in 1854 Dr. Harris 

 designated as lEgeria polistiformis was in 1856 designated by Dr. 

 Fitch as Trochilium polls ti for me. If the rules of nomenclature, pro- 

 mulgated long ago by the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, had been regarded in tliis case, the term "^Egeria," having 

 been once universal^ adopted, would never have been changed. But 

 unfortunately these rules have been too generally neglected, and the 

 "law of priority" has been for many years back enforced with the ut- 



