454 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Rose-chafer * 



About the time the grape is in bloom, immense swarms of 

 the common Rose-chafers or Rose-bugs often appear, covering 

 the plants, feeding on the blossoms, later attacking the young 

 fruit and foliage, and sometimes eating the leaves quite bare except 

 the larger veins. The chief damage, however, is done by destroy- 

 ing the blossoms or newly set fruit, or by so injuring the young 

 berries that they are misshapen and worthless The beetle is 



Fia. 381. The rose chafer (Macrodactylus subspinosus Fab.): a, beetle; 

 b, larva; c, d, mouth-parts of same; e, pupa all much enlarged; /, 

 beetles at work on foliage natural size. (After Marlatt, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr.) 



about one-third inch long, of a light-brownish color, covered 

 with numerous lighter hairs, and has very long spiny legs, which 

 always seem to be in its way and make it most awkward and 

 clumsy. It is a very general feeder, being common on roses, 

 from which the common name is received, and also on such orna- 



* Macrodactylus subspinosus Fab. Family Scarabceida. See Quaintance, 

 I.e.; Hartzell, I.e.; J. B. Smith, Bulletin 82, N. J. Agr. Exp. Sta.; Fred John- 

 son, Bulletin 97, Part III, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr.; and 

 F. H Chittenden, Farmers' Bulletin 721, U S. Dept. Agr. 



