241 



larva gets its growth at the close of its last summer, penetrates about 

 2 feet into the earth, remains a pupa there until February, at which time 

 it transforms to the beetle, and three months afterwards emerges to the 

 light.* Referring to one of our most common species, now known as 

 Lachnosterna fusca, he further saysrt " In the course of the spring these 

 beetles are often thrown from the earth by the spade and plow in vari- 

 ous 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." 



In a long account of the same species. Dr. Fitch remarks | that " early 

 in spring, in spading or plowing the ground, these beetles are frequently 

 exhumed, or sometimes in turning over a large stone one of them will 

 be found beneath, lying in a smooth cavity or little round hollow in the 

 dirt, like a chicken in its shell. This cavity or cell is formed by the 

 grub the preceding autumn. Turning itself around and around, it 

 Ijresses upon and compacts the dirt and molds it into this cell for its 

 winter residence; and in this cell it changes first to a pupa, in which the 

 legs and wing-cases of the insect are seen in their rudimentary state, and 

 afterwards to a beetle, such as we have above described. This beetle 

 lies dormant in its cell until the warmth of the incoming summer pene- 

 trates the ground safBciently to awaken it into activity. It then breaks 

 from its prison and works its way out of the ground." On another page 

 he adds, § "The history of our May beetle and its transformations have 

 never been fully observed, but everything known respecting it concurs to 

 show that it is exactly analogous to the cockchafer, or May bug of Europe 

 [PolyphyUa melolontha, Linn.), and occupies the place of that species 

 upon this continent." 



Mr, Walsh, the first State entomologist of Illinois, says concerning 

 the " white grub" II : "It lives several years in the larva state, and 

 finally, in the early spring, cli uiges into a dark chestnut-colored beetle." 



The fullest and most detailed of these earlier accounts, is that given 

 by Dr. Riley, in 1869, in his first report as State entomologist of Mis- 

 souri (p. 157) : 



Soon after pairing, the female beetle creeps into the earth, especially wherever the 

 soil is loose and rough, and after depositing her eggs, to the number of forty or fifty, 

 dies. These hatch in the course of a month, and the grubs, growing slowly, do not 

 attain full size till the early spring of the third year, when they construct an ovoid 

 chamber, lined with a gelatinous fluid, change into pupoB, and soon afterwards into 

 beetles. These last are at first white, and all the parts soft, as in the pupa, and they 

 frequently remain in the earth for weeks at a time, till thoroughly hardened, and 

 then, on some favorable night in May, they rise in swarms and fill the air. 



This is their history, though ic is very probable, as with the European cockchafer 



•Insects Injurious to Vegetation, 2d ed. (1862), pp. 27,28. 

 t Ibid, p. 31. 



t Third Report on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of New York (1859), p. 53, 

 $ Ibid., p. 55. 



II Practical Entomologist, vol. i (1866), p. 60. 

 15738— >^o. 5 5 



