around Chambersburg, but not disastrously so. It has not been 

 reported at all from the vicinity of Washington. D. C. It is certainly 

 not seriously injurious in the New England States at the present time, 

 and Dr. Fletcher reports a similar state of affairs in Ontario, Canada. 

 while in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and southern Michigan it is 

 becoming more and more destructive. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT. 



The fully developed insect is a small, dark-brown, hard-bodied bee- 

 tle shown enlarged in figure 1. 



The larva, or grub, shown enlarged in figure 

 2, is about an eighth of an inch long, dingy 

 white, with honey-yellow head and brown jaws. 



The pupa (fig. 3), is even smaller than the 

 larva, also dingy white, with two minute spinous 

 projections on the top of the head and two some- 

 what larger ones at the anal extremity. 



The eggs are elliptical, white, and minute, yet 

 large enough to be seen with the unaided eye. 



Fin. 2.— Mylastinus obscurus; 

 Larva or grub— much en 

 larged (original). 



LIFE HISTORY. 



There is certainly but one generation annually, 

 though this appears to be long drawn out, and 

 scattering individual larva' and pupa? may be found 

 throughout every month of the year. The finding of 

 eggs as late as September 18 has been reported from 

 Michigan. As a rule, however, the insects pass the 

 winter in the adult stage (fig. 1) within the roots 

 where they developed. During May they abandon 

 the old roots and seek out fresh plants or fields in 

 which to lay their eggs. The eggs are mostly de- 

 posited between the middle of May and June 20. 

 The female gouges out a shallow cavity, more often in 

 the crown of the plant, sometimes at the sides of the 

 root even 2 or 3 inches below the crown, and in this 

 places, singly, but not far separated, about half a dozen 

 pale, whitish, elliptical, very minute eggs. These hatch 

 in about a week, and the larvse (fig. 2) for a time teed in the excavation 

 made by the mother, but soon burrow downward into the root, and before 

 the first of August the majority of them have become fully grown and 

 passed into the pupal stage (fig. ."»). By October nearly all have 

 become fully developed beetles, hut they make no attempt to leave the 

 plant until the following spring. Bach states that the adults fly at 

 Omegnen in March and April, while Eichhoff has observed them near 

 Miilhausen, swarming during the warm afternoons about the middle of 



Fig.3.- // ylastinus 

 obscurus: Pupa— 

 much enlarged 

 (original I. 



