ATTACKING THE LEAVES. I55 



among the branches of trees, the tender leaves of which they 

 devour. The pear, oak, poplar, hickory, silver abele, 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 on summer even- 

 ings, dashing against everything it meets with, to the great 

 alarm of nervous inmates. In some seasons they are com- 

 paratively 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 deposits her eggs 

 in the ground at varying depths during the latter part of 

 June, and, 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 ^^^i ^^'^• 

 (Fig. 162) is a thick, whitish, fleshy grub, very 

 similar in appearance to that of the May-bug, 

 which is familiarly known as " the white grub." 

 It lives in the ground and feeds on the roots 

 of plants, and is tiius sometimes very destruc- 

 tive to strawberry-plants. It is said that the 

 larva is three years in reaching its full growth ; finally, it 

 matures in tiie autumn, and late the same season or early in 

 the following spring changes to a beetle. 



