122 A MANUAL OF FORESTRY 



plants, and trees in plantations. Only the smallest and ten- 

 derest roots can be consumed, but larger roots, up to at least 

 one-eighth inch in diameter, may be partially or completely 

 stripped of their bark. The greatest damage is to seedlings 

 where the entire root system may be consumed by this grub. 

 Three- and four-year old transplants in nurseries may lose all 

 but a single main root and become so weakened that finally 

 they die. In plantations the loss is less noticeable than in 

 nurseries. No thorough study of the loss has been made so 

 far as is known. Often the slow and stunted growth of certain 

 trees may be traced to root injuries due to this insect. 



Only plantations in open land not recently under forest are 

 liable to the injury, as the June bug is not found commonly in 

 forested soil. 



When once familiar with its devastations, its presence can be 

 readily detected. In seedbeds of very young plants the grub 

 often eats off the roots and draws the stem of the plant into 

 the ground leaving the top to rest on the surface. When these 

 tops are taken out the roots are found to have been eaten en- 

 tirely away. Older seedlings and transplants show the injury 

 by wilting and turning yellow, when their tops are pulled up 

 easily. An uninjured plant being held by its small roots offers 

 resistance when pulled. 



Life History. The June bug appears in the beetle form dur- 

 ing the latter part of the spring. In June or July it lays eggs 

 in the ground, one to six inches below the surface. Open land 

 and fields of old sod are its habitat. In the daytime the beetle 

 prefers to remain in trees and at night to fly out into the adjoin- 

 ing fields where it lays its eggs. Fields bordered with shade 

 trees which offer a shelter in the daytime are pretty sure to 

 furnish numerous June-bug grubs. The eggs soon hatch into 

 slender, whitish grubs, which at first are less than one-fourth 

 of an inch in length; sometimes they grow to be over one and a 

 half inches long. It is in this grub or pupa slu^ti that the injury 

 is done. The grubs are sluggish, work slowly, and never appear 

 above ground. They do not remain at one depth, but in sum- 



