LASPEYRESIA MOLESTA, AN IMPORTANT NEW INSECT 
ENEMY OF THE PEACH 
[PRELIMINARY PAPER] 
By A. L. Quaintance, Entomologist in Charge, and W. B. Wood, Entomological 
Assistant, Deciduous Fruit Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology 
INTRODUCTION 
Attention is called to the discovery in the District of Columbia and 
environs of an important insect enemy of the peach believed to be new 
to the United States and apparently not heretofore known to science. 
Observations on this species by the writers during the summer and fall 
of 1916 warrant the fear that another formidable insect enemy of the 
peach and other deciduous fruits has become established in America. 
The insect is a moth belonging to the tortricid genus Laspeyresia, which 
contains numerous species of prime importance as pests in different parts 
of the world. Thus, Laspeyresia funebrana Tr. is the common plum worm 
or plum maggot of Europe and is said to be plentiful in plum pies. L. 
woeberiana Schiff. in Europe bores the bark of peach, cherry, plum, and 
apple trees. L. nebritana is the common pea moth, and L. schistaceana Sn. 
is a sugar-cane pest of importance in Java. In America the most impor¬ 
tant species is L. pomonella E., as yet better known under the generic 
name “Carpocapsa.” The lesser apple worm, L. prumvora Walsh; 
the pecan moth, L. caryana Fitch; and L. pyricolana Murtfeldt are other 
familiar examples of the genus. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE MOTH 
Mr. August Busck, of the Bureau of Entomology, has prepared the fol¬ 
lowing description of the species with comment on its relationships and 
possible origin: 
Laspeyresia molesta, n. sp. 
Head dark, smoky fuscous; face a shade darker, nearly black; labial palpi a shade 
lighter fuscous; antennae simple, rather stout, half as long as the forewings, dark 
fuscous with thin, indistinct, whitish annulations. Thorax blackish fuscous; patagia 
faintly irrorated with white, each scale being slightly white-tipped. Forewings normal 
in form; termen with slight sinuation below apex; dark fuscous, obscurely irrorated 
by white-tipped scales; costal edge blackish, strigulated with obscure, geminate, white 
dashes, four very faint pairs on basal half and three more distinct on outer half besides 
two single white dashes before apex; from the black costal intervals run very obscure, 
wavy, dark lines across the wing, all with a strong outwardly directed wave on the middle 
of the wing; on the middle of the dorsal edge the spaces between three of these lines are 
more strongly irrorated with white than is the rest of the wing, so as to constitute two 
faint and poorly defined, white dorsal streaks. All these markings are only discernible 
in perfect specimens and under a lens; ocellus strongly irrorated with white, edged 
by two broad, perpendicular, faint bluish metallic lines and containing several small, 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Dept, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
(373) 
Vol. VII, No. 8 
Nov. 20,1916 
K—46 
