394 



FBUIT INSECTS 



white 



grubs (Fig. 338) thrive in grass land, and their abundance is 

 favored by a long rotation. They feed on the roots of grasses, 

 grains, corn, potatoes, beets and other 

 root crops and are often destructive to 

 nursery stock. We have seen roots of 

 apple stock so badly eaten that the 

 young trees could be easily hfted from 

 the ground with the thumb and finger. 

 Strawberries planted on infested land are 

 sure to suffer severely. 



White grul)s are the larvae of several 

 closely related species of the common 

 large brownish May beetles or June-bugs 

 (Figs. 340 and 341). They belong to 

 several species, but so far it has been impossible to distinguish 

 them in the larval stage. The Hfe histories of the various 

 species are, so far as known, 

 very similar. The parent bee- 

 tles appear in vast swarms in 

 May and June and attract at- 

 tention by their habit of coming 

 to lights. They hide in the 

 fields during the day, but at 

 dusk migrate in swarms to 

 near-by trees of various kinds, 

 where they feed on the leaves ; 

 at daybreak they return to the 

 fields. The female burrows in 

 the soil and deposits her eggs 

 singly or in small groups in the 

 ground one to three inches from the surface. The soil ad- 

 heres to the egg, thus forming a compact oval ball. The eggs 

 hatch in ten to eighteen days and the grubs feed during the re- 

 mainder of the season on the roots of their food-plants at an aver- 



FiG. 339. — A white grub in its cell in 

 the ground. Knight photo. 



