INSECTS INJURIOUS TO PLANTS. 85 



black dot on each side of it, and are provided with twen- 

 ty-two short legs. The body is green above, paler at the 

 sides, and yellowish beneath ; and it is soft, and almost 

 transparent, like jelly. The skin of the back is transverse- 

 ly wrinkled, and covered with minute elevated points ; 

 and there are two small, triple-pointed warts on the edge 

 of the first ring, immediately behind the head. These ge- 

 latinous and sluggish creatures eat the upper surface of 

 the leaf in large irregular patches, leaving the veins of the 

 skin, beneath, untouched ; and they are sometimes so 

 thick that not a leaf on the bushes is spared by them, and 

 the whole foliage looks as if it had been scorched by fire, 

 and drops off soon afterwards. They cast their skins 

 several times, leaving them extended and fastened on the 

 leaves ; after the last moulting, they lose their semi-trans- 

 parent and greenish color, and acquire an opaque yellow- 

 ish hue. They then leave the rose-bushes, some of them 

 slowly creeping down the stem, and others rolling up and 

 dropping off, especially when the bushes are shaken by 

 the wind. Having reached the ground, they burrow to 

 the depth of an inch or more in the earth, where each one 

 makes for itself a small oval cell, of grains of earth, ce- 

 mented with a little gummy silk. Having finished their 

 transformations, and turned to flies, within their cells, 

 they come out of the ground early in August, and lay 

 their eggs for a second brood of young. These, in turn, 

 perform their appointed work of destruction in the au- 

 tumn. They then go into the ground, make their earthen 

 cells, remain therein throughout the winter, and appear, 

 in the winged form, in the following spring and summer. 



"During several years past, these pernicious vermin 

 have infested the rose-bushes in the vicinity of Boston, and 

 have proved so injurious to them as to have excited the 

 attention of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, by 

 whom a premium of $100, for the most successful mode 



