94 LAMELLICORN-BEETLES. 



The female deposits her eggs in rotten wood, on which the 

 larva feeds. The latter seems to prefer the decaying roots of 

 apple, pear, hickory and some other trees. When full grown it 

 is nearly two inches in length, of the usual shape of other "white 

 grubs," but not so densely covered with hairs. It has a chest- 

 nut-brown head and a translucent white body, of a clearer white 

 color than that of other and similar shaped larvae; the las^c seg- 

 ment ends in a heart-shaped swelling, short and cut off squarely. 

 Seen from the front it is marked as shown in the Fig. ioo at (/. 

 As soon as full grown the larva forms a slight cocoon of par- 

 ticles of the surrounding wood ; in it it changes to a pupa from, 

 which the beetle escapes about ten days afterwards. 



THE GOLDSMITH-BEETLE. 



(Cotalpa lanigera Linn.). 



This is without doubt one of our most beautiful beetles, and 

 as it is rather common in our state, is well known, at least to 

 our children, whose eyes are so sharp in detecting all sorts of 

 strange looking or beautiful things. The beetle is almost one 

 inch long, and is broadly oval in shape. It is of a lemon-yellow 

 color above, glistening like burnished gold, with prismatic re- 

 flections on the top of the head and on the thorax. The under 

 ^sicte is copper-colored, and is thickly covered with whitish wool, 

 hence the name lauigcra or wool-bearer. Even the otherwise 

 polished upper surface is coated with an exceedingly fine down 

 in fresh specimens ; this, however, soon disappears, being rubbed 

 off. Fig. 101, Plate III, shows this beautiful insect. 



Although so common it can hardly be called a very injurious 

 beetle. According to Saunders "this insect appears late in May 

 and during the month of June, and is distributed over a very wide 

 area, being found in most of the Northern States and in Canada ; 

 and although seldom very abundant, rarely does a season pass 

 without some of them being seen. During the day they are in- 

 active, and may be found clinging to the under side of the leaves- 

 of trees, often drawing together two or three leaves, and hold- 



