INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PEACH. 



ATTACKING THE TRUNK, 



No, 97, The Peach-tree Borer, 



Mgeria exitwsa Say. 



This Dotorious pest, so destructive to peach-orchards, is 

 very widely disseminated. The parent insect belongs to a 

 family of moths known as .ZEgerians, which, having trans- 

 parent wings and slender bodies, strongly resemble certain 

 wasps and hornets, and, as they fly in the daytime only, and 

 are then very active on the wing, the resemblance becomes still 

 more striking. The moth appears in the Northern States and 

 Canada from about the middle of July to the end of August ; 

 in the South it appears much earlier, in some localities as 

 early as the latter part of May. The sexes differ very much 

 in appearance. In Fig. 203, a represents the female, and b 

 the male. The female 



is much the larger, FIG. 206. 



and has a broad, heavy 

 abdomen. The body 

 is of a glossy steel-blue 

 color with a purplish 

 reflection, and a broad 

 band of orange-yellow 

 across the abdomen. The fore wings are opaque, and similar 

 in color to the body, their tips and fringes having a purplish 

 tint both above and beneath. The hind wings are transparent 

 and broadly margined with steel-blue; when the wings are ex- 

 panded, the moth measures about an inch and a half across. 

 The male is smaller, its wings seldom measuring more than 

 an inch ; its body, which is also of steel-blue color, with golden- 

 yellow markings and a glossy, satin-like lustre, is much more 



191 



