248 ROSE-BUG ITS NAMES. 



From other sources I was told that when they first show 

 themselves each year, it is chiefly in the fields of spring wheat. 

 They entirely consume the young wheat plants, and then invade 

 the orchards. In consequence of this, many persons are firmly 

 persuaded it is the spring wheat that breeds these beetles ; and 

 some have made it a point not to have any spring wheat sowed 

 upon their farms, so long as these insects continue in their 

 neighborhood. But this idea is evidently erroneous. We have 

 a sufficient proof of this, in the fact, that this same insect has for 

 many years been excessively numerous in Eastern Massachusetts, 

 where no wheat, or but a very small quantity, is raised. The 

 known habits of the larva, moreover, show that wheat is by no 

 means essential to it. 



This beetle belongs to the Family Melolonthid^: and the 

 Order Coleoptera, the same group which includes a common 

 insect of kindred habits, the May beetle (Lachnosterna quercina), 

 which some years is so numerous in particular localities, as to 

 wholly destroy the fruit when in its* germ. One of the insects 

 most common in Europe and most often mentioned in books, the 

 cockchaffer, also belongs to this group; and Dr. Harris states 

 that it would be more correct to call the species under considera- 

 tion the rose-chaffer, instead of rose-bug. But this would lead 

 to confusion, as another insect (Celonia aurata), is commonly 

 called the rose-chaffer. Rose-beetle would be the most appro- 

 priate name by which to designate it, the term u bug " in strict- 

 ness belonging only to insects of the Order Hemiptera, although 

 in this country it is universally current for Coleopterous insects 

 also; and the proper term for the latter insects, "beetle," is 

 never heard among us, except occasionally from a person who 

 has learned it from books. This insect, however, has become so 

 widely known by the name rose-bug, that it is useless to attempt 

 changing this name. 



Its scientific name is Macrodactylus subspinosus . The generic 

 nameMacrodactylus, i. e. great claws or great feet, was bestowed 

 upon it by the eminent French entomologist Latreille, in conse- 

 quence of the remarkable length of its feet. Nearly a dozen 

 other insects are now known which rank in this genus, all of 

 them natives of Brazil or of Mexico. Its specific name subspin- 



