276 Beetles 



cell in the wood. The goldsmith-beetle, Cotalpa lanigera, of similar size 

 and shape, is glistening, burnished lemon yellow above with metallic 

 greenish, golden, and rose reflections; below it is copper-colored and 

 thickly covered with whitish wool, hence the name lanigera, or wool-bearer. 

 It appears in May and June, flies by night, and feeds on the foliage of 

 various trees. The larva lives in the ground, feeding on plant-roots. It is 

 said to require three years to complete its growth. 



The largest beetles in our country are the oddly shaped rhinoceros-beetles, 

 Dynastes, found in the south and west. D. tityrus (Fig. 380), 2\ inches long, 

 is greenish gray with scattered black spots on the elytra; the male has a 

 large horn on the head and three horns, one larger than the others, on the 

 prothorax; the female has only a tubercle on the head; it is a southern species. 

 D. grantii, of the west, has the large prothoracic horn twice as long as in 

 tityrus. In the West Indies occurs D. hercules, six inches long! The larvae 



FIG. 380. The rhinoceros-beetle, Dynastes tityrus. (Natural size.) 



(Fig. 381) of these beetles live in the roots of decaying trees. Allied to 

 Dynastes is the genus Ligyrus, of which L. rugiceps, the black sugar-cane 

 beetle of the southern states, is the best-known species; it burrows into the 

 base of sugar-cane and sometimes corn, and is often seriously destructive. 

 The larva lives in manure. The flower-beetles are Scarabaeids of several 

 genera, which are commonly seen flying from flower to flower and feeding 

 on pollen. The bumble flower-beetle, or Indian Cetonia, Euphoria inda 

 (Fig. 382), a common species, is inch long, yellowish brown, with the 

 elytra irregularly covered with small blackish spots, and with the whole 

 body clothed with short fox-colored hairs; it appears early in spring, and 

 flies near the ground with a loud humming. It feeds on flower-pollen, the 

 tassels and green silk of young corn, and later on ripening fruits of all kinds; 

 it often swarms about wounded trees, lapping up the escaping sap. The 

 larvae feed on decaying substances underground. The fig-eater, or "southern 

 June-beetle," Allorhina mtida, f inch to i inch long, is rather pointed in 



