220 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



the time of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain from 

 thirty to forty days. At the end of this period the males become 

 exhausted, fall to the ground and perish, while the females enter 

 the earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, and, after 

 lingering a few days, also die." Harris further wrote that the 

 eggs laid by each female are about thirty in number, and are 

 deposited from one to four inches beneath the surface of the 

 soil and hatched twenty days after they are laid. Should 

 the reader care to learn more detailed facts of the habits of 

 these interesting insects, he is referred to "Insects Injurious 

 to Vegetation," by the classical writer above cited. The rose- 

 bug, or rose-chafer, is known to the naturahst by the name, 

 M acrodactylus subspinosus. 



