ATTACKING THE LEAVES. 



213 



strong jaws are well adapted for cutting their food, and their 

 notched or double claws support them securely on the foliage. 

 The female is said to deposit her eggs between the roots of 

 grass, enclosed in a ball of earth ; they are white, translucent, 

 and spherical, and about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter. 

 When hatched, the small white grubs begin at once to feed 

 upon the rootlets of plants ; they are several years in reaching 

 maturity, and hence larvse of different sizes are usually found 



FIG. 219. 



in the ground at the same time. When full grown, they are 

 almost as thick as a man's little finger ; they are soft and white, 

 have a horny head of a brownish color, and six legs; the 

 hinder part of the body is usually curved under, as shown at 

 2, Fig. 219. This larva is generally known as "the white 

 grub/' and is very injurious to strawberries, devouring the 

 roots and destroying the plants ; it feeds also upon the roots 

 of grass and other plants, and when very numerous it so in- 

 jures pasture-lands and lawns that large portions of the turf 

 can be lifted with the hand and rolled over like a piece 

 of carpet, so completely are the roots devoured. When cold 

 weather approaches, the grub buries itself in the ground deep 



