356 FoRTT-siXTH Report on the State Musevm 



exempt from injury by them grain sown in the autumn and crops put 

 in the following spring. 



2. If full-groicn grubs (their size is well known to almost every agri- 

 culturist) are found in the spring, no injury to roots will be caused by 

 them after midsummer — during autumn or the following spring, — leaving 

 winter wheat, and corn, potatoes, etc., of the succeeding year free from 

 their attack. 



It is interesting to compare the above life-history of Lachnosterna 

 worked out in Illinois by Professor Forbes with that published in the 

 Patent Office Report for the year 1852, part ii, page 219, by Mr. D. L. 

 Bernard, of Ulster county, New York, which I have quoted in my 

 pamphlet entitled " The White Grub of the May Beetle," being Bul- 

 letin No. 5 of the Neto York State Museum of Natural History . These 

 almost precise points of agreement may be noticed: Eggs deposited 

 generally in the month of June (Bernard); in June and early July 

 (Forbes). Life duration of grubs, two years (B.); seemingly two (F.). 

 larvfe mature, middle of June (B.); the same (F.). Pupation, middle 

 of August (B.) ; * begins middle of June and continues into September 

 (F.). The perfect stage or beetle, about the last of September (B.); 

 middle of August to middle of September (F.). The beetle appears 

 abroad about the last of April or first of May (B.); April — June (F,). 



It will be observed that the above life-histories shorten the grub 

 stage by one year fi-om that given by most of our authors and drawn 

 mainly from that of the European cockchafer. 



See, also, " Notes on Lachnosterna," by G. H. Perkins, in Insect Life^ 

 iv, pp. 389-392. 



The White Grub Eaten by the Robin. 



Mr. W. C. Little, of the Commercial Nurseries, at Rochester, N. Y.,. 

 has sent me the following note of observations made by him, of the 

 fondness of the robin for the white grub of our lawns and fields,. 

 Lachnosterna fusca: 



I do not remember to have seen it stated in print that the robin is a 

 great feeder on the white grub of the May Beetle. Two or three 

 years ago I noticed the robins industriously engaged in grubbing on 

 our lawns. I thought at first that they were after the earth worms, 

 but their mode of procedure was so peculiar that I was led to investigate 

 and interrupt their operations; and in every instance I found the large 

 white grub at the bottom of the hole which the bird had drilled with 

 its beak — about an inch and a half below the surface. I estimated 



* It will be observed that this date is later than that given by Prof. Forbes. They agree as to 

 time that feeding ceases, but Mr. Bernard says that they then " descend deeper in the earth and 

 become torpid until about the middle of August." 



