I04 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Lilac borer 



Podoscsia syj'ingae Harris 

 Boring lilac stems and ash trunks. A white, sparsely haired caterpillar. 



This species is one of the more common pests of the lilac and its work 

 may frequently be seen in stems of this shrub, a sign of its presence in 

 midsummer being the sudden wilting of a shoot. It has been found at 

 work in ashtrees in Brookhn by the late Rev. G. B. Hulst and Prof. 

 Herbert Osborn observed it working in the young shoots of species of ash 

 at Ames la. The late Dr Kellicott of Buffalo states that it lives under the 

 bark of old trees, he having watched 20 or more issue from a single tree in 

 one day and found that often there were more than one hundred in one 

 tree. 



Professor Thomas, in writing of its work in Illinois, states that it may 

 be found during the latter part of the summer making its galleries through 

 both sap and heart wood of limbs even an inch in diameter. Moths were 

 bred at Carbondale Aug. 10 and cocoons were spun the following season 

 about the middle of May. The late Dr Kellicott found this species also 

 boring in mountain ash. Its recorded distribution has been given as New 

 England, Middle States westward to California and southward to Te.xas. 



Description. Male. Head black, palpi chestnut red, black beneath. 

 Collar edged with chestnut in front. Antennae rufous, black above. Tho- 

 rax deep brown more or less marked with bright chestnut red. Abdomen 

 black, or marked with chestnut brown, sometimes with a small yellow spot 

 on each side of the fourth segment, or with the segments banded with 

 yellow. Femora black, anterior pair of tibiae orange, tarsi yellow ; middle 

 and hind tibiae black with an orange band. Tarsi yellow, hind pair with a 

 black band above. Fore wings opaque, deep brown, with a violaceous 

 luster, usually with a rusty red dash at the outer part of the wing below the 

 costa. At the base is a short transparent streak, and marked "with red on 

 the costa and inner margin. Underside washed with orange and yellow. 

 Hind wings transparent, yellowish, with an opalescent luster, veins, discal 

 mark, and margin deep brown, sometimes tinged with red ; underside 

 marked with red. 



Female. Similar to the male, but more robust and larger. Expanse: 

 male 25-30 mm ; female 30-36 mm. Beutenmuller 



