LAMELLICORN-BEETLES. 95 



ing them with their sharp claws for the purpose of concealing 

 themselves. At dusk they issue from their hiding places, and fly 

 about with a buzzing sound among the branches of 'trees, the 

 tender leaves of which they devour. The pear, oak, poplar, 

 hickory, silver maple and sweet-gum all suffer more or less 

 from their attacks. Like the common May-bug, this beautiful 

 creature is attracted by light, and often flies into lighted rooms 

 in summer evenings, dashing against everything it meets with, 

 to the great alarm of nervous inmates. In some seasons they 

 are comparatively common, and may then be readily captured by 

 shaking the trees on which they are lodged in the daytime, when 

 they do not attempt to fly, but fall at once to the ground. 



The beetle is short lived. The female deposilcs her eggs in 

 the ground at varying depths during the latter part of June, and, 



Fig. 102.— Cota pa lanigera, adult and larva.— After Division of Entomology, 

 5J. S. Department of Agriculture. 



having thus provided for the continuance of her species, dies. 

 The lives of the males are of still shorter duration. The eggs are 

 laid during the night, the whole number probably not exceeding 

 twenty. They are very large for the size of the beetle, being 

 nearly one-tenth of an inch in length, of a long, ovoid form, and 

 a white, translucent appearance. 



"In about three weeks the young larva is hatched ; it is of a 

 dull-white color, with a polished horny head of a yellowish- 

 brown, feet of the same hue- and the extremity of the abdomen 

 lead-color. The mature larva (Fig. 102) is a thick, whitish, 



