THE PEACH-TREE BORER. 
331 
During tlie month of August, the squash and other 
cucurbitaceous vines are frequently found to die suddenly 
down to the root. The cause of this premature death is 
a little borer (Fig. 159, larva), which be- 
gins its operations near the ground, per- 
forates the stem, and devours the interior. 
It afterwards enters the soil, forms a cocoon (Tie. 160. 
• • N O ‘ 
cocoon containing chrysalis) of a gummy 
substance covered with particles of earth, 
changes to a chrysalis, and comes forth 
the next summer a winged insect. This 
is conspicuous for its orange-colored body, spotted with 
black, and its hind legs fringed with long orange-colored 
and black hairs. The hind wings only are transparent, and 
the fore wings expand from one inch to one inch and a half. 
It deposits its eggs on the vines close to the roots, and may 
be seen flying about the plants from the 10th of July till 
the middle of August. This insect, which may be called 
the squash-vine Algeria, was first described by me in the 
year 1828, under the name of JEgeria 10 Cucurbitce (Plate 
V. Fig. 8), the trivial name indicating the tribe of plants 
on which the caterpillar feeds.* 
The pernicious borer (Fig. 161, larva) 
which, during many years past, has proved 
very destructive to peach-trees throughout 
the United States, is a species of JEgeria , 
named exitiosa (Plate V. Fig. 6, male), or 
the destructive, by Mr. Say, who first scientifically' described 
it in the third volume of the “ Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,” and subsequently gave 
a representation and account of it in his “ American En- 
[ 10 The genus sEt/cria Pub. is now rejected by the best authorities, and all 
die species are put under Trochilium Scopoli, which has the priority by thirty 
years. — Morris.] 
* See New England Farmer, Vol. VIII. p. 33 ; my Discourse before the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 1832, p. 26; mid Sillimau’s Journal, 
Vol. XXXVI. p. 310. 
Fig. 160. 
Fig. 159. 
