3 
The egg was unknown until 1899, a singular fact, considering that 
this is one of the commonest and best known of injurious insects. It 
measures 0.6 mm. in length, and varies in color from bright lemon-yel- 
low to orange, the length being about twice the width (fig. 1,d). The 
surface, as viewed under a high power microscope, is finely sculptured, 
arranged in hexagonal pits (e). 
Although normal oviposition has not come under our observation, we 
may safely conclude, from analogy, that egg deposition takes place 
soon after the host plants are well above ground, and that the eggs are 
laid about the roots and main stems. Mr. F. M. Web- 
ster informs the writer that in insectary experiments 
conducted at Wooster, Ohio, eggs were deposited on 
leaf-stalks just below the surface of the ground. 
The larva is a very slender, white, worm-like crea- 
ture, with dark-brown head and anal plate and lighter 
brown thoracic plate.! 
The larval period is passed in the moist earth, 
about the bases of the stalks, and larve may be 
found within the stems as also upon the fruit where 
this comes in contact with the earth. This period 
has been stated to last for about a month, and there 
is an active stage of this duration in which the larve 
working in numbers have ample time for injuring 
the vines. When full grown, just before transform- 
ation, the larva contracts, having the appearance of 
being much stouter. Larve observed in July re- 
mained for three days in this contracted position, 
and this is probably the usual warm weather quies- !!6. 2-—Dtabrotica vit- 
; : : tata: a, head of larva; 
cent period before assuming the pupa stage. The  » jeg of same—anal 
pupa (fig. 1, c) is of nearly the same color as the segment from side— 
: Ns 9 all greatly enlarged 
larva, and its surface is sparsely beset with long (author's illustration). 
spine-like hairs, those on the dorsal surface arising 
from small, but prominent piliferous warts. This period will vary with 
climate and season, from six to seven days in warm weather to perhaps 
two weeks when colder. 
The entire life cycle of this insect has evidently never been ascer- 
tained. Considering its long season and the fact that newly transformed 
beetles have been observed from the second week of July till the first week 
of October there is comparative certainty of two generations, as gener- 
ally admitted, each year in the northernmost locality inhabited by the 
1 When fully matured it measures about three-tenths of an inch in length, thus 
being about ten times its width, and presents the appearance illustrated in figure 1 
at b. It is provided with three pairs of thoracic legs and an anal proleg. 
Figure 2 illustrates the head and thoracic plate (a), a true leg (b), and the anal 
proleg and plate in profile (c). 
