70 



Fi'r. 36. 



of wood and about a fortnight after, the perfect insect emerges, and may be found on 

 grape vines in Western Canada, during the months of July, August and September. To 

 this division belongs the beautiful Goldsmith Beetle, Cotalpa Lanigera, of which an inter- 

 esting account appeared in the February number of the Entomologist, written by Mr. 

 Saunders. As many of the readers of the Annual Report do not read that periodical 



I insert it. 



" This is, without doubt, the most beautiful of our leaf-eating beetles. It is nearly an 

 inch in length (fig. 36), of a broad oval form with the wing cases of a rich yellow colour, 

 with a pale metallic lustre, while the top of the head and thorax gleams like burnished gold 

 of a brilliant reddish cast. The under surface has a polished coppery hue 

 and is thickly covered with whitish wool ; this latter characteristic hav- 

 ing suggested its specific name lanigera (wool-bearer). 



" This insect appears late in May, and during the month of June. It 

 is distributed over a very wide area, embracing most of the northern 

 United States and Canada, and although seldom very abundant, it is 

 rarely that a season passes without more or less of them being seen. 

 During the day, they are inactive, and may be found clinging to the under 

 side of the leaves of trees, often drawing together two or three leaves — 

 which they hold 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 tree, the oak, poplar, hickory, silver abele and sweet gum all suffer more or less 

 from their attacks. Like the May bug, this beautiful creature is often attracted by light, 

 and flies into open windows on summer evenings, dashing in a bewildered sort of way against 

 everything it meets with to the great alarm of nervous inmates. In some seasons they 

 occur in considerable abundance, and may be readily captured by shaking the trees on 

 which they are lodged in the day-time, when they do not attempt to fly, but fall at once to 

 the ground. 



" The beetle is short-lived. The female deposits her eggs in the ground during the 

 latter part of June, and having thus provided for the continuance of her species, dies. The 

 eggs are laid during the night singly and at different depths, the number probably not 

 exceeding twenty in all. 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 white tranluscent appearance. 



" In less than a month the young larva is hatched ; it is of a dull white colour, with a 

 brown polished horny head, and the extremity of the abdomen lead colour. The mature 

 larva is a thick, whitish, fleshy grub, very similar in appearance to that of the common 

 May bug, familiarly known as ' the white grub.' It lives in the gi-ound and feeds on 

 the roots of plants, and on this account it is sometimes very destructive to strawberry 



patches. 



" Several years are required to bring this grub to maturity ; finally it reaches its full 

 growth in the fall, and changes to the perfect beetle early the following spring." I have 

 never met with this insect nor the spotted vine beetle in this part of Ontario. 



The last division, of "Flower Beetles," is very poorly represented in Canada, and the 

 individuals rather small. They are, however, striking in appearance. They belong chiefly 

 to the genus Cetonia and its allies, and are easily distinguished from the other scarabsei- 

 ans by their lower jaws, which are generally soft on the inside and are provided with a 

 flat brush of hairs with which they collect the pollen and juices upon which they feed. 

 Most of the brightly coloured kinds are diurnal, the dull ones nocturnal. Of 

 the Canadian diurnal flower beetles, the Euryomias are perhaps the most typ- 

 ical. This genus was separated from the Cetonias by Lacordaire on account 

 of the structure of the oral organs. We have two in our fauna ; E. inda, 

 LinA (Fig. 37), a rare insect in this part of Canada ; but common enough in the 

 West and in the United States to occasionally do much damage to the peach 

 crop, by boring into the fruit just when it is ready for the market. The other 

 Fig. 37. species, E. fulgida, Fab. , is also common in Western Canada ; I have taken it 

 in numbers near London, Ont., on the flowers of Viburmim 2n(.bescens, Pursh, in the month 

 of June. 



