454 



COLEOPTERA. 



sus Beauv. Fig. 407), is described by Chapuis and Candeze as 

 coming from New Orleans. 



Melolontha and its allies come next in the series. They feed 

 exclnsively on liA-ing plants. The genus Acratus was estab- 

 lished by Dr. Horn for A. jiavipeyinis Horn (Fig, 

 408 ; a, antenna ; 6, maxilla ; c, mentum ; c?, mandi- 

 ble ; e, anterior leg and tarsal claw) found in Ari 

 zona. The genus Diclielonycha is distinguished by 

 the front margin of the thorax being narrow and 

 membranous, with equal claws, cleft at the tip. Di- 

 chelonycha elongatnla Sclionh. is a long green beetle, with long 

 legs, and of a metallic green color ; it is found in June on the 



leaves of the birch. 



Macrodactylus sub- 

 spinosns Fabricius, the 

 well known Rose-bug 

 or Rose-chafer, is 

 brown, covered with 

 ochreous scales ; the 

 Fig. 408. legs, tarsi and claws 



are very long and slender. It overruns garden plants, especi- 

 ally injuring the rose leaves. Dr. Harris has observed the 

 transformations of this insect. The nearly globular whitish 

 eggs, about thirty in number, are deposited by the female 

 from one to four inches beneath the surface of the soil, and are 

 hatched in about twenty days. The whitish 

 larva becomes fully grown in the autumn, and 

 is then three-quarters of an inch long and an 

 eighth of an inch wide. In October it descends 

 below the reach of frost, and in the next 

 May is transformed to a pupa in an oval 

 earthen cell. The pupa is yellowish white, 

 somewhat of the form of the beetle, with short wings ; its 

 antennae and legs folded on its breast, with its white body 

 surrounded b}'' a thin film. The beetles may be often seen in 

 clusters on low bushes in partiall}^ cleared fields having just 

 appeared from their cocoons. Dr. Horn has described the 

 genus Plectrodes for a Californian species, P. pnhescens Horn 

 (Fig. 409; a, maxilla and palpus; &, tarsal claw). The well 



