34 COLEOPTERA. 



thicker, and much smaller in size. The first of them, the 

 vespertine or evening Omaloplia, is bay-brown ; the wing- 

 covers are marked with many longitudinal shallow furrows, 

 which, with the thorax, are thickly punctured. This beetle 

 varies in length from three to four tenths of an inch. Oma- 

 loplia sericea, the silky Omaloplia, closely resembles the pre- 

 cedino- in evervthing but its color, which is a verv deep 



^ / O -' 



chestnut-brown, iridescent or changeable like satin, and re- 

 flecting the colors of the rainbow. 



All these Melolonthians are nocturnal insects, never ap- 

 pearing, except by accident, in the day, during which they 

 remain under shelter of the foliage of trees and shrubs, or 

 concealed in the grass. Others are truly day-fliers, commit- 

 ting their ravages by the light of the sun, and are conse- 

 quently exposed to observation. 



One of our diurnal Melolonthians is supposed by many nat- 

 uralists to be the Anomala varians (Fig. 15) 

 of Fabricius ; and it agrees very well with 

 this writer's description of the hicicola ; but 

 Professor Germar thinks it to be an unde- 

 scribed species, and proposes to name it coe- 

 lebs. It resembles the vine-chafer of Europe 

 in its habits, and is found in the months of 

 June and July on the cultivated and wild 

 grape-vines, the leaves of which it devours. During the same 

 period, these chafers may be seen in still greater numbers on 

 various kinds of sumach, which they often completely despoil 

 of their leaves. They are of a broad oval shape, and very 

 variable in color. The head and thorax of the mule, are 

 greenish black, margined with dull ochre or tile-red, and 

 thickly punctured ; the wing-covers are clay-yellow, irregu- 

 larly furrowed, and punctured in the furrows ; the legs are 

 pale red, brown, or black. The thorax of the female is clay- 

 yellow, or tile-red, sometimes with two oblique blackish spots 

 on the top, and sometimes almost entirely black ; the wing- 

 covers resemble those of the male ; the legs are clay-yellow, 



