210 



NATURAL HISTORY. 





Fk;. 206. — June-bug (Lachnosterna fusca) 

 larva and pupa. 



with 



June-bugs, so familiar in early summer. In all stages of existence they 

 are nuisances. As perfect beetles they gnaw the leaves of various trees, 



sometimes stripping them of all their 

 foliage, while the larva? are even more 

 injurious to the roots of the grass of 

 meadows and lawns. On digging up 

 a bit of turf one frequently finds a 

 fat, white grub — the larva of the 

 June-bug — which is busily engaged 

 in feeding upon the roots about it. 

 In Europe there is a similar species ; 

 but as it appears a month earlier, it 

 is called the May-beetle. Its history 

 has been worked out very thoroughly, 

 and it is said that it requires from 

 three to four years for it to com- 

 plete its metamorphoses. For this 

 reason it is somewhat periodical in its appearance. 



A little less familiar is a slightly larger beetle of similar shape, but of 

 a bright lemon-yellow color. It is the goldsmith-beetle. Dr. Samuel 

 Lockwood has studied its habits, and from his pages the following account 

 is extracted. For five years he sought the larva?, but in vain. " The next 

 step was to examine very thoroughly every larva of a Coleopterous kind 

 found in proximity with the imagoes. This led to the discovery that cer- 

 tain large whitish grubs about an inch 

 and three-quarters long and over half an 

 inch thick, had a yellowish brown scale 

 on the part corresponding to the thorax, 

 and it was thought that it might ripen 

 pS§§? into the red golden hue of the thorax of 

 the perfect insect. This decided my 

 course. Like Scholasticus, who, having 

 heard that the crow lived a hundred 

 years, at once went to the market, bought 

 a young one, and resolved he would see, 

 I filled a deep glass jar with earth and placed six large grubs on the top. 

 I r was interesting to observe how quickly these soft creatures burrowed 

 .mt of sight." In the following spring five goldsmith-beetles emerged from 

 the earth, one of the larva? having died. What the larva? feed upon is yet 

 unknown ; the adult eats the leaves of various trees. 



With this brief mention we -must dismiss our native Scaraba?us, but 



Fig. 207. — Goldsmith-beetle {Cotulpa lanigera) 

 and larva. 



