BEETLES. 239 



(tea tree), some of the Kunzeas and others. It is 

 a light brown colour usually, while some individ- 

 uals are of darker colour. The best known of this 

 group is Genus Phyllotocus. 



Another scarab is the sugar cane beetle of Queens- 

 land, a very serious pest, for the grubs feed on the 

 roots of sugar cane and destroy the plants. This 

 pest is called Lcpidodcrma albohirtum. The word 

 ''Lepidoderma" means scaly skin, and the upper 

 portion is clothed with greyish scales; albohirtum 

 means "white hairs." 



On the whole, the Lamellicorns are pests. 



Observations on Lamellicorn Beetles. 



We found an interesting life history in a garden 

 wlien the soil was being dug up with a spade. 



Several lamellicorn larvae were seen and one pupa. 

 Then in a little mud-lined cave about two inches 

 across was all that remained of a scarab-grub — 

 only a shrivelled empty skin. Alongside this was 

 a reddish-brown silken cocoon, elliptical in shape, 

 tapering towards one end. Here was a tragedy ! 

 This brown cocoon enclosed the pupa of a wasp — • 

 a fossore or digger wasp. The adult motherwasp 

 had laid an egg on the body of the lamellicorn grub 

 and out of this egg hatched a little baby wasp- 

 maggot, which, with its sharp jaws, pierced a tiny 

 hole in the skin of the big grub. Here the wasp- 

 maggot sucked the juices of the beetle grub, and 

 grew and flourished till at last, after several moults, 

 it was ready to pupate. It then had exhausted 

 all the food within the body of its victim, which 



