NO. 21. 



THE farmers' cabinet. 



323 



a spot of the same color beneath the origin of 

 the wings; wingn, liyaline, nervures and 

 niar"in, steel blue, which is more dilated on 

 the costal margin, and on the anastomasing 

 band of the superiur wings; /te/, steel blue, 

 the coxae, two bands on the tibise, including 

 the spines, incisures of the posterior tarsi and 

 anterior tarsi, bohind, pale yellow; abdomen, 

 with two very narrow pale yellow bands, one 

 of wliich is near the base, and the otiier on 

 the middle; tail, fringed, fringe margined 

 with white each side. 



Female. Body, very dark steel blue, with 

 a tinfe of purple ; antennae, destitute of cil- 

 Im; paljji, beneath, black; thorax, immacu- 

 late; sujierior icings, without any hyaline 

 bpot; inferior wings, hyaline, with an opaque 

 maro^in and longitudinal line, the latter and 

 the costal margin dilated ; tergiim, " with the 

 firtii segment bright reddish fulvous." — !Say''s 

 Am. Entomology, vol. II., plate 19. 



The general aspect of the peach Jly strik- 

 ingly resembles that ofa blue wasp, especially 

 the female when in a state of repose, for we 

 do not readily discover the nature of its lus- 

 trous covering, except by the touch, and the 

 inferior transparent wings are concealed be- 

 neath the superior opaque ones. In the male, 

 the central portion of all the wings are trans- 

 parent, or want the blue scales. In the fe- 

 male, the inferior wings, only, present this 

 character. The broad red orange band which 

 crosses her abdomen, will also distinguish her 

 from the other sex. Of two females now be- 

 fore me, one measures three-fourths, the other 

 five-eighths of an inch long. The male per- 

 haps is a little shorter. 



Conforming to the general habits of the 

 family to which it belongs, our subject ven- 

 turesabroad only during the twilight, and thus 

 60 etfectually eludes observation as seldom to 

 be seen, unless collected in the pupa state. 



Although the egeria so generally affects our 

 peach trees, as to have acquired the appro- 

 priate name of Peach Fly ; yet, in my gar- 

 den, not only the peach, (anygdalus persica,) 

 but the almong, (A. communis,) the dwarf 

 flowering almond, (A. pumila,) the Chicasaw 

 plum, (prunus chicasa,) and the black plum, 

 (P. domestica,) have all shared the same fate. 

 Future observations may, possibly, determine 

 that those trees are affected by different spe- 

 cies of egeria. 



When deposited in confinement, the eg-^.f 

 are oblong-oval, yellowish white, and so small 

 as to be indistinctly visible to the naked eye. 

 Hence, it is difficult to discover the place 

 where they arc usually deposited. But as the 

 larve are first observed at or immediately be- 

 low the surface, and first penetrate the soft 

 bark in that situation, we may safely infer, 

 that to be the place where the eggs were 

 deposited. I have, sometime.;, seen a vast 



I number of minute larva;, resembling those of 



'the peach fly, in the moist, soft gum, which 



'iiad exuded from the tree at Ihc surface of 



the ground — the eggs of these might have 



been placed in tiie gum. 



The young worms appear to penetrate the 

 bark about the commencement uf the autumnal 

 fro.its. Having reached the wood, ihcy turn 

 their course downwards to the root. As they 

 make but slow progress, they cannot escape 

 the frosts of winter, and must, therefore, pass 

 that season in a torpid state. With the ro- 

 turn of spring, they resume their downward 

 course, for a time, and then return towards 

 the surface, where they arrive about mid- 

 summer, in order to assume the form of pupse. 

 The worms are then an inch, or more, in 

 length, ofa yellowish white, or cream color, 

 the head flattened, and ofa reddish brown hue. 



Having completed the larva state, it 

 emerges from the bark, and choosing a situa- 

 tion, ^us^ at the surface of the ground, among 

 the gum, grass, and its own gnawings of the 

 bark, it envelopes itself in a sort of cocoon, or 

 follicle, composed principally, of gnawed bark 

 cemented together with a glutinous web. 

 This follicle is oblong-oval, an inch long, 

 brown, and exteriorly presents nothing but 

 the fragments of bark which compose it. 

 Withinlhis homely dwelling, the worm un- 

 dergoes its first transformation. 



1!\\Q pupa is of a chesnut-brown color, a 

 little rough, or spinose, and exhibits the form 

 of the contained members in bold relief The 

 pupa state, probably, endures for two or three 

 weeks, before the final transformation takes 

 place. 



Generally, the pupa; contained in their 

 follicles, may be foimd, in the situation I have 

 described, between the first and middle of the 

 seventh month (July.) James Worth {Journ. 

 Jlcud, Nat. Sciences, Fhilad. vol. III.) ex- 

 amined his trees on the tenth, and found thirty 

 larva?, (all of which had returned to the sur- 

 face preparatory to their change) and twenty 

 follicles, from four of which, the flies had al- 

 ready escaped. I have never seen the pupa3 

 at any other period. Those who wish to ex- 

 amine the insect can most readily procure it 

 in this way. 



Some persons believe that the peach in- 

 sect does not always observe the periods I 

 have mentioned. Evan Thomas, in Ameri- 

 can Farmer, vol. VI. p. 37, after confirming 

 some of the statements 1 have made, says, 

 "in general, however, the pupse are furmed 

 early in October, in the midst of a conglom- 

 eration of gum, fibrous, and excremcntitioiis 

 matter, and about the close of the month, the 

 insect issues from tlie chrysalis, deposits its 

 eggs, as before mentioned, and prepares to 

 hibernate, like others of the same tribe, in 

 the roofs of houses, beneath the bnrk of old 



