ROSE-BUG DESCRIPTION THEREOF. 249 



osus, meaning slightly or somewhat spined, has allusion to the 

 sides of the thorax which jut out into an obtuse angle merely, 

 many beetles closely related to this having sharp pointed spines 

 or teeth where this angle occurs. In Dr. F. E. Melshcimer's 

 Catalogue of Coleoptera, lately published, Linneeus is cited as 

 having originally given this name to this species, but on what 

 authority it is credited to him does not appear. Dr. Harris says 

 this insect was first named and described by Fabricius in 1781; 

 but this author had previously described it (Syst. Entom. p. 39) 

 in the year 1775; and this appears to be the first notice of it on 

 record. Herbst subsequently described it under the name elon- 

 gata and Beauvois under that of angustata^ both these names 

 having allusion to its long, narrow form. 



The Rose-bug is 0.35 long or a little less. (The figure, plate 2, fig. 3 is in- 

 tended to represent it its natural size.) It is covered with minute scales which 

 give it a buff or ochre yellow color above, the head and thorax being of a 

 lighter yellow tint, and the under side of the body is white. If these scales 

 are rubbed off, the head, thorax and under side of the body is black and the 

 wing covers yellowish brown. The antennae are bright tawny yellow, their 

 tips black. When extended backward they reach the middle of the thorax. 

 They are composed of nine joints (as shown, magnified, plate 2, fig. 3 a), the 

 three last being long, flattened and shutting together like the leaves of a book, 

 and forming a large oval knob. The mouth and feelers are tawny yellowish- 

 red often tinged more or less with black. The thorax is longer than wide, nar- 

 rower than the wing covers, broadest across its middle, where on each side it 

 bulges outwards forming almost an angular protuberance, from whence it is 

 strongly narrowed both before and behind, making it nearly six-sided. The 

 scutel between the base of the wing covers is rounded at its tip and almost 

 semicircular, being rather longer than broad. The wing covers have slightly 

 elevated ridges lengthwise. The whole of the last segment of the abdomen is 

 exposed beyond their tips and is inclined obliquely downwards. The legs are 

 bright tawny yellow, the four hind shanks are black at their tips and armed 

 with a pair of thorn-like spines. The feet are alike in both sexes; each joint 

 is narrower towards its base and of a tawny yellow color, black at its tip and 

 furnished with a crown of black spines and bristles. The feet end in two strong 

 claws or hooks of equal size, the tips of which are split. 



This species presents several varieties, the scales being sometimes grayish- 

 white above instead of yellow, the thorax beneath the scales brownish-red, &c. 



The rose-bug first strongly excited public attention, in Massa- 

 chusetts, in the year 1825, and the accounts of the extensive de- 

 vastation which it was producing in various parts of the State 

 induced the Massachusetts Agricultural Society to offer a pre- 

 mium for an essay upon its natural history, and some probable 

 means for checking its progress. No such essay being presented 



