AMEBIC AN VINE-CHAFEB. 55 



our ISTorton's Yirginia grape-vines, eating the leaves in a manner 

 similar to the leaf inclosed. The first I noticed them was about 

 four days ago, when, about sun-down, in my pear orchard, they 

 were flying close to the ground, in a ziz-zag style, as if they were 

 hunting for something, and were in such numbers as to sound like 

 a swarm of bees. After I had eaten my supper, and it had be- 

 come quite dark, I discovered them in great numbers on the JSTor- 

 ton's Virginia vines. They would shake ofl' very easy, and ' play 

 possum' for a few minutes, and then fly up and commence again. 

 The next morning I went out to sprinkle the vines with lime, and 

 to my surprise, found there was not a beetle on the vines ; all 

 were gone ; but of two hundred and fifty vines they had eaten 

 half of the leaves. In searching, I found large numbers in the 

 ground, under the vines, but apparently not in so great numbers 

 as they were on the vines the night before. This was Friday 

 morning. I was obliged to go to Cairo on business, and did not 

 get back till Sunday, and on my return found that the vines did 

 not look as if they had been injured any during my absence, or at 

 least but very little. I took a look to-day and found them still in 

 the ground, about half an inch deep, and generally in pairs. In 

 my vineyard of twenty varieties, they have disturbed none but 

 Norton's Virginia. In a neighboring vineyard containing say a 

 dozen Norton's, with several thousand Concords and Ives, they 

 have eaten all the Norton's, and worked a little upon some ad- 

 joining Concords, but they were evidently not suited to their 

 taste. Judge Brown, who has but three or four Norton vines, in 

 a vineyard of three or four hundred vines of different kinds, finds 

 his Nortons badly eaten and none of the others touched. I shall 

 examine the vines to-night, and if possible ascertain if they come 

 out of the ground and eat the vines. They do not eat at all in 

 the day time.'' 



Dr. Harris speaks of the Anomalse as being diurnal in their hab- 

 its, and the specific name of lucicola given to this species by Fa- 

 bricius, if indeed it be the same, means loving or seeking the 

 light. But from Mr. Ayres's observations, it appears that, like 

 many of our larger Melolonthians, this is a night-feeding species. 

 Mr. Ayres's description of its mode of flight calls to our mind the 

 low, mousing flight of another and more common, allied species, 



