DESTRUCTION OF THE MAY-BEETLE. 31 



three slightly elevated longitudinal lines ; the breast is clothed 

 with yellowish down. The knob of its antennee contains 

 only three leaf-like joints. Its average length is nine tenths 

 of an inch. In its perfect state it feeds on the leaves of trees, 

 jiarticularly on those of the cherry-tree. It flies with a hum- 

 ming noise in the night, fi'om the middle of May to the end 

 of June, and fi-equently enters houses, attracted by the light. 

 In the course of the spring, these beetles are often thrown 

 from the earth by the spade and plough, in various states of 

 maturity, some being soft and nearly white, their supera- 

 bundant juices not having evaporated, while others exhibit the 

 true color and texture of the perfect insect. The grubs de- 

 vour the roots of grass and of other plants, and in many 

 places the turf may be turned up like a carpet in consequence 

 of the destruction of the roots. The grub* is a white worm 

 with a brownish head, and, when fully grown, is nearly as 

 thick as tlie little finger. It is eaten greedily by crows and 

 fowls. The beetles are devoured by the skunk, whose bene- 

 ficial foraging is detected in our gardens by its abundant ex- 

 crement filled with the wing-cases of these insects. 



A writer in the " New York Evening Post " says, that the 

 beetles, which fi-equently commit serious ravages on fruit- 

 trees, may be effectually exterminated by shaking them fi-om 

 the trees every evening. In this way two pailfiils of beetles 

 were collected on the first experiment ; the number caun-ht 

 regularly decreased until the fifth evening, when only two 

 beetles were to be found. The best time, however, for shak- 

 ing trees on which the May-beetles are lodged, is in the 

 morning, when the insects do not attempt to fly. They are 

 most easily collected in a cloth spread under the trees to re- 

 ceive them when they fall, after which they should be thrown 

 into boiling water to kill them, and may then be given as 

 food to swine. 



* There is a grub, somewhat resembhng this, which is frequently found under 

 old manure-heaps, and is commonly called muck-worm. It diflers, however, in 

 some respects, from that of the May-beetle, or dor-bng, and is transformed to a 

 dung-beetle called Scai-abceus vdiclus by Mr. Say. 



