COLEOPTERA. 37 



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 meas- 

 ures 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 transfor- 

 mation. At this time they may be found on the flowers of the 

 golden-rod, eating the pollen, and also in great numbers on corn- 

 stalks, 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 larvae or 

 grubs may live on the roots of herbaceous plants. 



The other Cetonian beetle to be described is the Osmoderma 

 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 cor- 

 ners 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 scaler, Kirby. 



