INSECTS. 333 



properly applied to all parts of the foliage. The eggs of most insects 

 continue to hatch in rotation, during their season. To keep the plants 

 perfectly clean, it will be necessary to dress them two or three times. 

 "I remain, Sir, 



" Your most obedient Servant, 



"DAVID HAGGERSTON. 

 "Watertown, June 19th, 1841." 



The Rose Bug. " The Rose-chafer, or Rose-bug-, as it is 

 more commonly and incorrectly called, is also a diurnal insect. 

 It is the Melolontha subspinosa of Fabricius, by whom it was first 

 described, and belongs to the modern genus Macrodactylus of 

 Latreille. Common as this insect is in the vicinity of Boston, 

 it is, or was a few years ago, unknown in the northern and 

 western parts of Massachusetts, in New Hampshire, and in 

 Maine. It may, therefore, be well to give a brief description 

 of it. This beetle measures seven twentieths of an inch in 

 length. Its body is slender, tapers before and behind, and is 

 entirely covered with very short and close ashen-yellow down. 

 The thorax is long and narrow, angularly widened in the mid- 

 dle of each side, which suggested the name subspinosa, or 

 somewhat spined; the legs are slender, and of a pale-red color; 

 the joints of the feet are tipped with black, and are very long, 

 which caused Latreille to call the genus Macrodactylus, that is, 

 long toe, or long foot. The natural history of the Rose-chafer, 

 one of the greatest scourges with which our gardens and nur- 

 series have been afflicted, was for a long time involved in mys- 

 tery, but is at last fully cleared up. The prevalence of this 

 insect on the rose, and its annual appearance coinciding with 

 the blossoming of that flower, have gained for it the popular 

 name by which it is here known. For some time after they 

 were first noticed, Rose-bugs appeared to be confined to their 

 favorite, the blossoms of the rose ; but within thirty years they 

 have prodigiously increased in number, have attacked at ran- 

 dom various kinds of plants, in swarms, and have become no- 

 torious for their extensive and deplorable ravages. The grape- 

 vine in particular, the cherry, plum, arid apple trees, have 

 annually suffered by their depredations. Many other fruit 



