INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE. 



THE AMERICAN VINE-CHAFER. 



{Anoniala lucicola, Fabr.) 

 Order of COLEOPTERA. Family of Mklolomjud.k. 



One of the insects injurious to the grape vine in Europe, and 

 sometimes to a serious extent, is a small beetle belonging to the 

 family of Melolonthidii^, and resembling, in its general characters, 

 the common May-beetle or Dorr-beetle which makes such a buz- 

 zing about our lamps in the early summer evening. This insect 

 is known as the Anomala viiis, or Yine-chafer, and we have in this 

 country one species at least, of the same genus, which has the 

 same injurious habits, though never to so great an extent. This 

 species is now generally regarded by entomologists, I believe, as 

 the Anomala lucicola of Fabricius, though it has often been con- 

 founded with another species, the A. varians of the same author. 

 Dr. Harris mentions it in his treatise upon the noxious insects of 

 Massachusetts, and speaks of its being quite destructive in parti- 

 cular localities of that State in the year 1825. 



About the last of June of the present year (1870), I received a 

 box of these insects from Mr. E. J. Ayres, of Yilla Ridge, to whom 

 I have been indebted for many interesting insects, and to whom 

 I am happy to have this opportunity of publicly expressing my 

 thanks. Mr. Ayres gives so graphic an account of the habits of 

 this insect, as observed by himself, that I cannot do better than 

 copy his words : 



"I send you a box of perhaps a dozen or more beetles which 

 are new to me, and which are just now making sad havoc with 



