COLEOPTERA. 31 



of the feet arc tipped with bkick, and are very long, Avhieh 

 caused Latreille to call the genus Macrodacti/Ius, that is long 

 toe, or long foot. The natural history of the rose-chafer, one 

 of the greatest scourges with whic-h our gardens and nurseries 

 have been afflicted, was for a long time involved in mystery, 

 but is at last fully cleared up.* The prevalence of this insect 

 on the rose, and its annual appearance coinciding with the 

 blossoming of that flower, have gained for it the popular name 

 by which it is iun-e known. For some time after they were 

 first noticed, rose-bugs appeared to be confined to their favorite, 

 the blossoms of the rose; but within forty years they have 

 prodigiously increased in number, have attacked at random 

 various kinds of plants in swarms, and have become notorious 

 for their extensive and deplorable ravages. The grape-vine in 

 particular, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have annually 

 suffered by theur depredations; many other fruit-trees and 

 shrubs, garden vegetables and corn, and even the trees of the 

 forest and the grass of the fields, have been laid under conti-i- 

 bution by these indiscriminate feeders, by whom leaves, flow^ers, 

 and fruits are alike consumed. The unexpected arrival of 

 these insects in swarms, at their first coming, and their sudden 

 disappearance at the close of their career, are remarkable facts 

 in theii- history. They come forth from the ground during the 

 second week in June, or about the time of the blossoming of 

 the damask rose, and remain from thirty to forty days. At the 

 end of this period the males become exhausted, fall to the 

 ground and perish, while the females enter the earth, lay their 

 eggs, return to the surface, and, after lingering a few days, die 

 also. The eggs laid by each female are about thii-ty in num- 

 ber, and are deposited from one to four inches beneath the 

 surface of the soil; they are nearly globular, whitish, and about 



* Sec my essay in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, 

 Vol. X. p. S ; reprinted in the New England Farmer, Yol. VI. p. 18, &c. ; my 

 Discourse before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, p. 31,8vo, Cambridge, 

 1832 ; Dr. Greene's communication on this insect in the New England Farmer, 

 Yol. YI. pp. 41, 49, &c. ; my Report on Insects injurious to Vegetation, in 

 Massachusetts House Document, No. 72, April, 1838, p. 70 ; and a communi- 

 cation in the New England Farmer, Vol. IX. p. 1. 



