192 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PEACH. 



slender than that of the female. The antennae are black 

 and densely fringed on the inner side with numerous fine, 

 short hairs, the latter a feature absent in the female. The 

 head and thorax are marked with yellow, and the abdomen 

 has two slender yellow bands above, and a white line on each 

 side of the tuft of hairs at its tip. The wings are transparent, 

 the veins, margins, and fringe steel-blue, and a steel-blue band 

 extends nearly across beyond the middle. The feet and legs 

 are marked with yellow and white. 



The female deposits her eggs on the bark of the tree at 

 the surface of the ground. They are about one-fiftieth of an 

 inch long, with a sculptured surface, oval in form, slightly 

 flattened, and of a dull-yellowish color. They are deposited 

 singly, are fastened to the surface of the bark by a gummy 

 secretion, and sometimes have a few of the dark-blue scales 

 from the tip of the abdomen of the female attached to them. 

 As soon as the larva is hatched, it works downwards in the 

 bark of the root, forming a small winding channel, which 

 soon becomes filled with gum. As it increases in size, it 

 devours the bark and sap-wood, and causes a copious exuda- 

 tion of gum, which eventually forms a thick mass around the 

 base of the tree, intermingled with the castings of the worm. 

 When full grown (see Fig. 204), the larva measures over half 

 an inch in length, and nearly a quar- 

 ter of an inch in diameter. It is a 

 naked, soft, cylindrical grub, of a pale 

 whitish-yellow color, with a reddish, 

 horny-looking head and black jaws ; 

 the tipper part of the next segment is similar in appearance 

 to the head, but of a paler shade. The under surface resem- 

 bles the upper in color; the three anterior pairs of claw-like 

 feet are tipped with brown ; the five hinder pairs of thick, 

 fleshy prolegs are yellow, each of the latter margined with a 

 fringe of very minute reddish-brown hooks. There are a few 

 scattered hairs over the surface of the body, each arising from 

 a pale-reddish, wart-like dot. The larvae may be found of 



