112 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



where the soil is covered with a thick layer of old leaves. On 

 such places infested roots are by no means rare : every fourth 

 or fifth will be found either to contain the beetles or to have 

 been infested by a previous generation. The beetle is com 

 mon in the localities thus far visited by me, viz : the hills 

 along the Kastern Branch of the Potomac near Benning's 

 Station, and along Rock Creek, and I have no doubt that it 

 will be found equally abundant in other localities around 

 Washington and elsewhere. In view of this fact it is strange 

 that neither Mr. Ulke, in his thirty years' assiduous collecting 

 near Washington, nor myself have ever found before a single 

 specimen of the beetle here. The only explanation for this is, 

 in my opinion, that the beetle is strictly subterraneous ; that 

 it appears only rarely above ground and rarely makes use of 

 its wings, although both sexes are provided with such. The 

 beetle seems to be perfectly at home in the soil and digs 

 through the same with astonishing rapidity, while specimens 

 which I took from their burrows and placed in a pill-box were 

 all dead after less than twenty-four hours. Both sexes appear 

 to be nearly equally represented : of fifty-six specimens, twenty- 

 five were males and thirty-one females. 



Although quite abundant the beetles are by no means easily 

 found. The best way is to carefully inspect a patch of huckle 

 berry bushes in places indicated above, and if there are dead 

 plants or plants with wilted leaves they are sure to be infested 

 by the insect. No attempt should be made to pull out such 

 plants for they break off invariably just at the top of the in 

 fested portion, and it is then usually very difficult to find, 

 among the tangle of other roots, the underground continua 

 tion of the plant containing the burrows and the beetles. The 

 earth should be carefully removed from the suspected plants, 

 and the infested part of the root will at once be recognizable 

 from some yellow sawdust adhering to it. 



From the observation made thus far but little can be said re 

 garding the annual life-cycle of this species. The perfect beetles 

 hybernate either in the larval cradles or in special hybernating 

 galleries. Among the many specimens I found during Octo 

 ber there were only two larvae and three pupae, and these 

 would no doubt have changed to imagos before the beginning 

 of the winter. In early spring the beetles will no doubt 

 emerge from the plants, copulation taking place outside of the 

 burrows because there is no room therefor within. The female 

 beetle will then bore into fresh plants and commence to lay 

 one egg in each of the larval cradles excavated by herself. 

 If the plant is thin only three or four cradles are excavated, 

 and the beetle probably attacks a second or even a third plant. 



