body is enclosed in a thin film, that wraps each part separately. During the month of June this filmy skin is rent, the included beetle withdraws from it its body and its limbs, bursts open its earthen cell, and digs its way to the surface of the ground. Thus the various changes, from the egg to the full development of the perfected beetle, are completed within the space of one year.

Such being the metamorphoses and habits of these insects, it is evident that we cannot attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa state; the enemy, in these stages, is beyond our reach, and is subject to the control only of the natural but unknown means appointed by the Author of Nature to keep the insect tribes in check. When they have issued from their subterranean retreats, and have congregated upon our vines, trees, and other vegetable productions, in the complete enjoyment of their propensities, we must unite our efforts to seize and crush the invaders. They must indeed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive them of life, for they are not affected by any of the applications usually found destructive to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gathering them by hand, or of shaking them or brushing them from the plants into tin vessels containing a little water. They should be collected daily during the period of their visitation, and should be committed to the flames, or killed by scalding water. The late John Lowell, Esq. states,* that in 1823, he discovered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs "in vast numbers, such as could not be described, and would not be believed if they were described, or, at least, none but an ocular witness could conceive of their numbers. Destruction by hand was out of the question", in this case. He put sheets under the tree, and shook them down, and burned them. Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investigations have thrown much light on the history of this insect, proposes protecting plants with millinet, and says that in this way only did he succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. His remarks also show the utility of gathering them. "Eighty-six of these spoilers", says he, "were known to infest a single rosebud, and were crushed with one grasp of the hand." Suppose, as was probably the case, that one half of them were females; by

* Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, Vol. IX. P. 145.

this destruction, eight hundred eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. During the time of their prevalence, rosebugs are sometimes found in immense numbers on the flowers of the common white-weed, or ox-eye daisy, (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), a worthless plant, which has come to us from Europe, and has been suffered to overrun our pastures, and encroach on our mowing lands. In certain cases it may become expedient rapidly to mow down the infested white-weed in dry pastures, and consume it, with the sluggish rose-bugs, on the spot.

Our insect-eating birds undoubtedly devour many of these insects, and deserve to be cherished and protected for their services. Rose-bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated fowls; and when they become exhausted and fall to the ground, or when they are about to lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, insects, and other animals, which lie in wait to seize them. Dr. Green informs us, that a species of dragon-fly, or devil's needle devours them. He also says that an insect which he calls the enemy of the cut-worm, probably the larva of a Carabus or predaceous ground-beetle, preys on the grubs of the common dorbug. In France the golden ground-beetle (Carabus auratus) devours the female dor or chafer at the moment when she is about to deposit her eggs. I have taken one specimen of this fine ground-beetle in Massachusetts, and we have several other kinds, equally predaceous, which probably contribute to check the increase of our native Melolonthians.

There are several more tree-beetles in Massachusetts, which are injurious to vegetation; but a mere description of them, without an account of their previous history, which is not yet fully known, would be of little use to the cultivator of the soil.

Very few of the flower-beetles are decidedly injurious to vegetation. Some of them are said to eat leaves; but the greater number live on the pollen and the honey of flowers, or upon the sap that oozes from the wounds of plants. In the infant or grub state most of them eat only the crumbled substance of decayed roots and stumps; a few live in the wounds of trees, and by their depredations prevent them from healing, and accelerate the decay of the trunk. The flower-beetles belong chiefly to a group called CETONIADE, or Cetonians. They are easily distinguished from

the other Scarabæians by their lower jaws, which are generally soft on the inside, and are often provided with a flat brush of hairs, that serves to collect the pollen and juices on which they subsist. Their upper jaws have no grinding plate on the inside. Their antennæ consist of ten joints, the last three of which form a three-leaved oval knob. The head is often square, with a large and wide visor, overhanging and entirely concealing the upperlip. The thorax is either rounded, somewhat square, or triangular. The wing-cases do not cover the end of the body. The fore-legs are deeply notched on the outer edge; and the claws are equal and entire. These beetles are generally of an oblong oval form, somewhat flattened above, and often brilliantly colored and highly polished, sometimes also covered with hairs. Most of the bright-colored kinds are day-fliers; those of dark and plain tints are generally nocturnal beetles. Some of them are of immense size, and have been styled the princes of the beetle tribes; such are the Incas of South America, and the Goliah beetle (Hegemon Goliatus) of Guinea, the latter being more than four inches long, two inches broad, and thick and heavy in propor

tion.

Two American Cetonians must suffice as examples in this group. The first is the Indian Cetonia, Cetonia Inda*, one of our earliest visitors in the spring, making its appearance towards the end of April or the beginning of May, when it may sometimes be seen in considerable numbers around the borders of woods, and in dry open fields, flying just above the grass with a loud humming sound, like a humble-bee, for which perhaps it might at first sight be mistaken. Like other insects of the same genus, it has a broad body, very obtuse behind, with a triangular thorax, and a little wedge-shaped piece on each side between the hinder angles of the thorax and the shoulders of the wing-covers; the latter, taken together, form an oblong square, but are somewhat notched or widely scalloped on the middle of the outer edges. The head and thorax of this beetle are dark copper-brown, or almost black, and thickly covered with short greenish yellow hairs; the wingcases are light yellowish brown, but changeable, with pearly and

*

Scarabæus Indus of Linnæus, Cetonia barbata of Say.

metallic tints, and spattered with numerous irregular black spots; the under-side of the body, which is very hairy, is of a black color, with the edges of the rings and the legs dull red. It measures about six tenths of an inch in length. During the summer months the Indian Cetonia is not seen; but about the middle of September a new brood comes forth, the beetles appearing fresh and bright, as though they had just completed their last transformation. At this time they may be found on the flowers of the golden-rod, eating the pollen, and also in great numbers on cornstalks, and on the trunks of the locust-tree, feeding upon the sweet sap of these plants. On the approach of cold weather they disappear, but I have not been able to ascertain what becomes of them at this time, and only conjecture that they get into some warm and sheltered spot, where they pass the winter in a torpid state, and in the spring issue from their retreats, and finish their career by depositing their eggs for another brood. Those that are seen in the spring want the freshness of the autumnal beetles, a circumstance that favors my conjecture. Their hovering over and occasionally dropping upon the surface of the ground is probably for the purpose of selecting a suitable place to enter the earth and lay their eggs. Hence I suppose that their larvæ or grubs may live on the roots of herbaceous plants.

The other Cetonian beetle to be described is the Osmodermå scaber*, or rough Osmoderma. It is a large insect, with a broad oval and flattened body; the thorax is nearly round, but wider than long; there are no wedge-shaped pieces between the corners of the thorax, and the shoulders of the wing-cases, and the outer edges of the latter are entire. It is of a purplish-black color, with a coppery lustre ; the head is punctured, concave or hollowed on the top, with the edge of the broad visor turned up in the males, nearly flat, and with the edge of the visor not raised in the females; the wing-cases are so thickly and deeply and irregularly punctured as to appear almost as rough as shagreen; the under-side of the body is smooth and without hairs; and the legs are short and stout. In addition to the differences between the sexes above described, it may be mentioned that the females

* Trichius scaber, Palisot de Beauvois; Gymnodus scaber, Kirby.

are generally much larger than the males, and often want the coppery polish of the latter. They measure from eight tenths of an inch to one inch and one tenth in length. They are nocturnal insects, and conceal themselves during the day in the crevices and hollows of trees, where they feed upon the sap that flows from the bark. They have the odor of Russia leather, and give this out so powerfully, that their presence can be detected, by the scent alone, at the distance of two or three yards from the place of their retreat. This strong smell suggested the name Osmoderma, that is scented skin, given to these beetles by the French naturalists. They seem particularly fond of the juices of cherry and apple trees; in the hollows of which I have often discovered them. Their larvæ live in the hollows of these same trees, feed

ing upon the diseased wood, and causing it more rapidly to decay. They are whitish fleshy grubs, with a reddish hard-shelled head, and closely resemble the grubs of the common dor-beetle. In the autumn each one makes an oval cell or pod, of fragments of wood, strongly cemented with a kind of glue; it goes through its transformation within this cell, and comes forth in the beetle form in the month of July.

We have another scented beetle, equal in size to the preceding, of a deep mahogany-brown color, perfectly smooth, and highly polished, and the male has a deep pit before the middle of the thorax. This species of Osmoderma is called eremicola*, a name that cannot be rendered literally into English by any single word; it signifies wilderness-inhabitant, for which might be substituted hermit. I believe that this insect lives in forest-trees, but the larva is unknown to me.

The family LUCANIDE, or Lucanians, so named from the Linnæan genus LUCANUS, must be placed next to the Scarabæians in a natural arrangement. This family includes the insects called stagbeetles, horn-bugs, and flying-bulls, names that they have obtained from the great size and peculiar form of their upper jaws, which are sometimes curved like the horns of cattle, and sometimes branched like the antlers of a stag. In these beetles the body is hard, oblong, rounded behind, and slightly convex; the head is

*Cetonia eremicola of Knoch.