78 DECIDUOUS FRUIT INSECTS AND INSECTICIDES. 



are active and jump about in an erratic way and at first are aided 

 only slightly by the partly developed wings. As the wings expand 

 the moth rests for a few minutes until the wing tissues are set, and 

 it then immediately flies away. Newly emerged moths, when con- 

 fined in rearing cages or jars, buzz and throw themselves against 

 the sides of the cage with comparatively great force. 



ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION AND SUBSEQUENT NOTES. 



Henry Edwards in 1881 described the adult of the peach-tree borer 

 under the name Mgeria ovalescens. 1 The description is as follows: 



Steel blue, the fore wings with the opaque spaces greenish black, the vitreous spaces 

 very opalescent, with a few silvery scales, hind wings with bright opalescent reflec- 

 tion. Fringes of both wings purplish black. Beneath the silvery scales of fore wings 

 are much more numerous, extending over the whole vitreous surface. Head, palpi, 

 and antennae, deep jet black. Thorax concolorous with fore wings. Abdomen, dark 

 steel blue. The whole of the under surface greenish black, the tibiae having at their 

 base a tuft of whitish hairs. Spurs whitish, speckled with black. 



Exp. wings 28 mm. 



3 males, Virginia City, Nevada. (H. E.) 



1 female, Colorado (Morrison). 

 Type: Coll. Hy. Edwards. 



Later, Beutenmuiler, in his Monograph of the Sesiidse, changed the 

 name of the insect to Sanninoidea opalescens, 2 and gave the following 

 notes on its description. 



Male. — Head, thorax, and abdomen entirely black. Legs black with white tufts. 

 Fore wings transparent with black margins. Transverse mark and outer margin very 

 broad. Hind wings transparent with black border. Underside of wings same as 

 above. 



Female. — Head, thorax, abdomen, and legs wholly bronzy black, forewing opaque, 

 bright metallic green black. Hind wings transparent, opalescent, outer margin and 

 fringe blue, or green black. Underside same as above. 



Expanse: Male 25-30 mm; female 30-34 mm. 



Habitat: Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon. 



Types: Two males. Coll. Hy. Edwards, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Male and female 

 S. pacijica. Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Beutenmuiler also adds that Sanninoidea opalescens differs rrom 

 the eastern peach borer, Sanninoidea exitiosa, 



By having the transverse mark and outer margins of the fore wings of the male much 

 broader. In the female the fore wings are opaque, the hindwings transparent and the 

 abdomen wholly blue or green black. 



The striking difference between the two species, however, is that 

 the upper part of segment 4 in the females of Sanninoidea exitiosa is 

 orange colored, while the dorsal segments in Sanninoidea opalescens 

 are uniformly steel blue-black. 



i Papilio, vol. 1, no. 10, p. 199, 1881. 



2 Monograph of the Sesiidse of America, North of Mexico, vol. 1, Part VI, Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 p. 271, 1896. 



