INTRODUCTION. 23 



millet, sugar, and other crops. The female beetle deposits her 

 eggs singly in the ground near suitable roots, the total number 

 ot eggs laid by one individual, as observed by Mr. Lefroy, being 

 from nine to thirty. As in other Lamellicornia, the eggs increase 

 considerably in size before hatching, growing in a few days to 

 more tliau double their original weight and bulk, no doubt 

 through the absorption of moisture by the albumen. When 

 first laid they are elongate-oval in shape, but become afterwards 

 almost exactly spherical. Eggs laid on June 1st hatched on 

 June 10th, and the growth of the larvae was exceedingly rapid. 

 They fed upon the roots of rice grown for them in the obser- 

 vation-cages, and by September had reached full size and withdrew 

 deeper into the earth, where each prepared a chamber of earthy 

 particles, in u hich it rested until the following March or April. 

 No change took place during this long period, except that a slight 

 contraction of the body was apparent ; but about April the skin 

 split along the back, exposing the pupa within it. In ten days 

 more the mature beetle emerged. The emergence under natural 

 conditions seems usually to take place just after rain, tlie beetles 

 probably finding the cells in which they have passed the long dry 

 season too hard to break through previously. After the ground 

 and the earthen cocoons have been sufficiently softened by the 

 first rains, the insects make their appearance in considerable 

 numbers. They are nocturnal in their habits, flying at dusk and 

 being very commonly attracted by light. Probably they rest by day 

 beneath the surface of the ground, and emerge at night to feed upon 

 foliage. The capture of very many species of Anomala (although 

 not of the bi'ightly-coloured ones, which are diurnal) is due to 

 their being attracted by lights, and of some of these only males 

 have been so far taken (e. g., Anomala euops). In other species, 

 of which both sexes are known, the males considerably outnumber 

 the females. This is probably due, in part at least, to the latter 

 having more sluggish habits than the males, but it seems to be 

 the case with some species that the males emerge some time 

 before the females. Mr. F. Muir, who visited Japan to investigate 

 an Anomala {A. orientalis) — native to that country — which had 

 become a serious pest of the sugar-crops in the Hawaiian Islands, 

 tells me that he found m.ales there in numbers at the beginning 

 of June but no females. This continued for three weeks, after 

 which females were occasionally to be found in flo\vers, but never 

 in association with males, although these were still more numerous 

 than before. 



Amongst other definitely injurious species, Anomala tencUa, Bl., 

 is destructive to the tea-crop in Ceylon, the beetles being found 

 devouring the young shoots in great numbers. A closely-allied 

 species, Anomala dalmani, found in southern China, is similarly 

 destructive in the Chinese plantations. Adoretas lasiopi/(/ns 

 causes serious damage in southern India by devouring the leaves 

 of the grape-vine, mango, etc. Another species of Adoretits 

 (A. compressus, Wied.) belonging to the Indian fauna has caused 



