THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 51 



with a loud, humming sound, like that of a bumble-bee, for which it is often 

 mistaken. During the summer months it is not seen, but a new brood 

 appears about the middle of September. The beetle is a general feeder, 

 occurring upon flowers, eating the pollen ; upon cornstalks and green 

 corn in the milk, sucking the juices ; and upon peaches, grapes, and 

 apples. Occasionally the ravages are very serious." (Comstock's Man- 

 ual for the Study of Insects, p. 565.) 



Although this beetle is so common, and has been known for more 

 than a hundred years, nothing was recorded of its earlier stages (beyond 

 the fact that it occurred in its various stages in the nests of ants) until 

 December, 1894. Then Mr. Chittenden (Insect Life, VII., 272) recorded 

 the rearing of the beetle from larvje found in manure on Long Island. 

 When found, July 9th, the larvre were encased in cocoons, and the last 

 week in August these cocoons contained living adults. 



On June 19th and July 8th, 1896, I received a large number of 

 grubs from Mt. Kisco, N. Y. They were found in a manure pile that had 

 not been disturbed since the preceding August, and from the soil beneath 

 another pile made in October and moved in the following April. One of 

 these grubs is represented, twice natural size, at c on the plate. When 

 compared with a white grub (Lac/inosterna, sp.), it was found to be con- 

 siderably shorter and thicker-set ; its legs were not more than one-half as 

 long, and its head was also much smaller than that of the white grub. 

 The dull leaden hue of the body, due to the contents of the food-canal, 

 indicated that its food consisted of dead vegetable matter rather than 

 living roots, as in the case of the white grub. When they were placed 

 on their feet or venter, they would crawl an inch or so and then roll over 

 and crawl with considerable rapidity, with a wave-like motion, on their 

 backs. I also found several similar grubs in a pile of rotting sod and 

 manure which had not been disturbed for a long time. I have seen no 

 evidence of their eating the roots of living plants. 



The grubs were placed in cages containing rotting sod and manure, 

 in which they quickly buried' themselves. Twenty days later, July 28th, 

 the grubs had changed to pupre in earthen cocoons of the somewhat 

 peculiar and definite shape shown, twice natural size, at b on the plate. 

 Evidently the grub forms an earthen cell in the soil by rolling and twisting 

 about, and then cements together the particles of earth composing the 

 W3.11s of the cell so as to form an earthen cocoon, which retains its form 



