THE LEPIDOPTERA 



243 



Family ^Egeriidae (The Clear-winged Moths). This family, some- 

 times called. the Sesiidse, includes a number of moths whose wings are 

 only partially covered by scales. They are not large insects, spreading 

 on an average, about an inch and are often brilliantly colored. They 

 fly during the day and particularly during its warmest portion, and are 

 very rapid in their flight. The larvse are whitish in color and are all 

 borers, either in stems, roots or under bark. They are therefore, all 

 injurious, their importance to man depending on the value of the plant 

 attacked. 



The Peach Borer (Synanthedon exitiosa Say). This insect which is 

 a native of North America is a serious pest of the peach wherever these 

 trees occur east of the Rocky Mountains. West of this a very closely 

 related species, the Pacific Peach Borer (Synanthedon opalescens Hy. 

 Edw.) has a similar life history, habits and control methods. 



r 



FIG. 239. Adult Moths of the Peach Borer (Synanthedon exitiosa Say), twice natural 

 size: a, male; &, female. (From Britton, Ninth Rept. Ent. Conn. Agr. Exp. Sta. 1909: after 

 Beutenmuller.) 



The adult insect (Fig. 239) is a little larger than the average, usually 

 spreading a little more than an inch. The male has a dark blue body 

 and its transparent wings are bordered with blue. In the female the 

 fore wings are entirely blue, the hind wings .transparent and an orange 

 band crosses the blue body at about the middle of the abdomen. The 

 moths may often be noticed darting about in peach orchards during the 

 middle of the day, anywhere between early May and October (even 

 earlier in the Gulf States), but are most abundant during June and July 

 in the Southern States, and July and August in the North. The eggs, 

 several hundred in number, are laid singly or a few together on the trunk 

 of the tree near the ground, and the larvse on hatching bore into the 

 sap-wood close to the ground and feed in that region until winter, at 

 which time most of them are about one-third grown. In the spring they 

 resume their feeding (Fig. 240) and upon reaching full size work their 

 way to the surface and pupate, forming their cocoons of their excrement 



