34 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



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 visita- 

 tion, and should be committed to the flames, or killed by scalding 

 water. The late John Lowell, Esq. states,* that in 1823, he dis- 

 covered, 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 con- 

 ceive of their numbers. Destruction by hand was out of the ques- 

 tion", in this case. He put sheets under the tree, and shook them 

 down, and burned them. Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investiga- 

 tions 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 rose- 

 bud, 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. 



