BEETLE. 



The grubs devour the roots of 

 grass and of other plants, and in many places 

 the turf may be turned up like a carpet in con- 

 sequence of the destruction of the roots. The 

 grub is a white worm with a brownish head, 

 and, when fully grown, is nearly as thick as 

 the little finger. It is eaten greedily by crows 

 and fowls. There is a grub, somewhat resem- 

 bling this, which is frequently found under old 

 manure heaps, and is commonly called muck- 

 worm. It differs, however, in some respects 

 from that of the May-beetle, or dor-bug, and is 

 transformed to a dung-beetle called Scarabseus 

 reliclus by Mr. Say. The beetles are devoured 

 by the skunk, whose beneficial foraging is de- 

 tected in our gardens by its abundant excre- 

 ment filled with the wing-cases of these insects. 

 A writer in the ' New York Evening Post,' 

 says that the beetles, which frequently commit 

 serious ravages on fruit-trees, may be effectu- 

 ally exterminated by shaking them from tin- 

 trees every evening. In this way two pailsful 

 of beetles were collected on the first experi- 

 ment; the number caught regularly decreased 

 until the fifth evening, when only two beetles 

 were to be found. The best time, however, 

 for shaking trees on which the May-beetles are 

 lodged is in the morning, when the insects do 

 not attempt to fly. They are most easily col- 

 lected in a cloth spread under the tree 

 ceive them when they fall, after which they 

 should be thrown into boiling water to kill 

 them, and may then be given as food to swim-." 

 (Harris.") 



In some parts of Massachusetts the beetle 

 called the Georgian leaf-eater takes the place 

 of the quercina. It is extremely common in 

 some places in May and June. Its colour is a 

 bay-brown. The upper side is entirely covered 

 with very short yellowish gray hairs, and mea- 

 sures seven-tenths of an inch, or more, in 

 length. These beetles, with some others of 

 the same genus, are commonly found in Ame- 

 rican gardens, nurseries, orchards, and fields, 

 where they are more or less injurious depre- 

 dators. They also devour the leaves of various 

 forest-trees, such as the elm, maple, oak, &c. 

 They are all nocturnal insects, never appear- 

 ing, except by accident, in the day, during 

 which they remain under shelter of the foliage 

 of trees and shrubs, or concealed in the grass. 

 (Harris) 



Of the American diurnal or day-flying 

 beetles, which belong to the Melolonthians, one 

 is described by Professor Gemar, which he 

 proposes to call ccelebs. 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 chaf- 

 ers may be seen in still greater numbers on 

 various kinds of sumach, which they often 

 completely despoil of their leaves. They are 

 very variable in colour. The head and thorax 

 of the male are greenish black, margined with 

 dull ochre or tile-red, and thickly punctured; the 

 wing-covers are clay-yellow, with punctured 

 furrows. The males are sometimes entirely 

 black, and they commonly measure nearly, and 

 the females rather more than seven-tenths of an 

 inch in length. Should these beetles increase 



BEETLE. 



[ in numbers, Dr. Harris thinks they will be 

 found as difficult to check and extirpate as the 

 destructive vine-chafers of Europe. 



An account of the natural history and habits 

 of the Rose-bug or chafer, which belongs to the 

 family of day-fliers, will be found under the 

 head ROSK-HK;. 



Very few of the beetle tribes which usually 

 subsist upon flowers are injurious to vegeta- 

 tion. Some of them are said to eat leaves, but 

 the greater number live on the pollen and the 

 honey of flowers, or upon the sap which oozes 

 from the wounds of plants. The flower-beetles 

 belong chiefly to a group called Cetonians. 

 They are easily distinguished from other bee- 

 tles by their lower jaws, which are generally 

 soft on the inside, and are often provided 

 with a flat brush of hairs that serves to collect 

 the pollen and juices on which they subsist. 

 Most of the bright-coloured kinds are day- 

 fliers ; those of dark and plain tints are gene- 

 rally night-fliers. Some of them are of im- 

 mense size, and have been styled the princes 

 of the beetle tribes; such are the Incas of South 

 America, and the Goliah beetle of Guinea, the 

 latter being more than four inches long, two 

 inches broad, and thick and heavy in propor- 

 tion. (Harris.} 



A family of beetles called the Lucaniuns, 

 includes the insects called stag-beetles, horn- 

 ed tlyin<:-l>ulls, vulgar names derived 

 from the great size and peculiar form of their 

 upper jaws, which are sometimes curved like 

 the horns of cattle, and sometimes branched 

 like the antlers of a stag. "These beetles," 

 says Dr. Harris, "fly abroad during the ni^ht, 

 and frequently enter houses at that time, some- 

 what to the alarm of the occupants ; but they 

 are not venomous, and never attempt to bite 

 without provocation. They pass the day on 

 the trunks of trees, and live upon the sap, for 

 procuring which the brushes of their jaws and 

 lip seem to be designed. They are said also 

 occasionally to bite and seize caterpillars and 

 other soft-bodied insects, for the purpose of 

 sucking out their juices. They lay their eggs 

 in crevices of the bark of trees, especially near 

 the roots, where they may sometimes be seen 

 thus employed. The larvae hatched from these 

 eggs resemble the grubs of the Scarabaeians 

 in colour and form, but they are smoother, or 

 not so much wrinkled. The grubs of the large 

 kinds are said to be six years in coming to 

 their growth, living all this time in the trunks 

 and roots of trees, boring into the solid wood, 

 and reducing it to a substance resembling 

 very coarse sawdust; and the injury thus 

 caused by them is frequently very consider- 

 able. When they have arrived at their full 

 size, they enclose themselves in egg-shaped 

 pods, composed of gnawed particles of wood 

 and bark, stuck together and lined with a kind 

 of glue; within tjiese pods they are trans- 

 formed to pupae, of a yellowish-white colour, 

 having the body and all the limbs of the future 

 beetle encased in a whitish film, which being 

 thrown off in due time, the insects appear in 

 the beetle form, burst the walls of their prison, 

 crawl through the passages the larvae had 

 gnawed, and come forth on the outside of the 

 trees. 



p2 173 



