144 VITIS LABRUSCA. 
thirty in number, and are deposited from one to four inches beneath the surface 
of the soil ; they are nearly globular, whitish, and about one thirtieth of an inch 
in diameter, and are hatched twenty days after they are laid. The young larvae 
begin to feed on such tender roots as are within their reach." * * * * * 
" They attain their full size in the autumn, being then nearly three-quarters of 
an inch long, and about an eighth of an inch in diameter." ***** I n Octo- 
ber, they descend below the reach of the frost, and pass the winter in a torpid 
state. In the spring they approach towards the surface, and each one forms foi 
itself a little cell of an oval shape, by turning round a great many times, so as to 
compress the earth, and render the inside of the cavity hard and smooth. Within 
this cell the grub is transformed into a pupa, during the month of May, by cast- 
ing off its skin, which is pushed downwards in folds from the head to the tail. 
The pupa has somewhat the form of the perfect beetle ; but it is of a yellowish- 
white colour, and its short, stump-like wings, its antennas, and its legs are folded 
upon the breast, and its whole body is inclosed in a thin film, that wraps each 
part separately. During the month of June, this filmy skin is rent, the included 
beetle withdraws from it its body and its limbs, bursts open its earthen cell, and 
digs its way to the surface of the ground. Thus the various changes, from the 
egg to the full development of the perfect beetle, are completed within the space 
of one year. Such being the metamorphoses and habits of these insects, it is 
evident that we cannot attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa state ; the 
enemy, in these stages, is beyond our reach, and is subject to the control only of 
the natural but unknown means appointed by the Author of Nature, to keep the 
insect tribes in check. When they have issued from their subterranean retreats, 
and have congregated upon our vines, trees, and other vegetable productions, in the 
complete enjoyment of their propensities, we must unite our efforts to seize and 
crush the invaders. They must indeed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive 
them of life, for they are not affected by any of the applications usually found 
destructive to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gathering them 
by hand, or of shaking them or brushing them from the plants into tin vessels con- 
taining a little water. They should be collected daily during the period of their 
visitation, and should be committed to the flames, or killed by scalding water." 
The Haltica chalybea or steel-blue fiee-beetle, as it is sometimes called, also 
inhabits the vine and preys upon its buds and leaves, in almost every part of the 
union. An interesting account of its habits and ravages is given in the xxvith 
volume of Silliman's " American Journal of Science and Arts," by Mr. David 
Thomas, of Cayuga county, in New York. The brilliant insects of this species, 
were observed by him, in the spring of 1831, creeping on the vines, and destroy- 
ing the buds, by eating out the central succulent parts. Some had burrowed 
even half their length into the buds. When disturbed, they jump, rather than 
fly, and remain where they fall for a time, without motion. In 1830 and 1831, 
he also found the vine-leaves infested by small, chesnut-coloured, smooth worms, 
which he fed in a tumbler, containing some moist earth, until they were fully 
grown, when they concealed themselves below the surface. In about two weeks 
after, some beetles were found in the tumbler, which led him to suppose that 
their larvae undergo their transformation in the ground. These beetles, according 
to Dr. Harris, are exceedingly variable in their colour, being sometimes of a dark- 
purple, violet, Prussian blue, greenish-blue, and deep-green colour. The most 
common tint of the upper sides is a glossy, deep greenish-blue ; the under sides 
of a dark-green ; and the antennae and feet are of a dull black. The body is 
oblong-oval, and the hinder part of the thorax is marked with a transverse fur- 
row. It measures rather more than three-twentieths of an inch in length. In 
Massachusetts, these beetles begin to come out of their winter quarters towards 
