which are injurious to vegetation. 22 1 



insect, a point of some importance to settle. But for the 

 account : 



" The rose-chafer, or rose-bug, as it is more commonly and incorrectly 

 called, is also a diurnal insect. It is the Melolontha subspinosa of Fabri- 

 cius, by whom it was first described, and belongs to the modern genus 

 Macrodactylus , {Stenothorax, in my prize essay,) of Latreille. Common 

 as this insect is in the vicinity of Boston, it is, or was a few years ago, 

 unknown in the northern and western parts of Massachusetts, in New- 

 Hampshire, and in Maine. It may, therefore, be well to give a brief de- 

 scription of it. This beetle measures seven-twentieths of an inch in 

 length. Its body is slender, tapers before and behind, and is entirely cov- 

 ered with very short and close ashen-yellow down ; the thorax is long and 

 narrow, angularly widened in the middle of each side, which suggested 

 the name stibspinosa, or somewhat spined ; the legs are slender, and of a 

 pale red color ; the joints of the feet are tipped with black, and are very 

 long, which caused Latreille to call the genus Macrodactylus, that is, long 

 toe, or long foot. The natural history of the rose-chafer, one of the great- 

 est scourges with which our gardens and nurseries have been afflicted, 

 was for a long time involved in mystery, but is at last fully cleared up.* 

 The prevalence of this insect on the rose, and its annual appearance coin- 

 ciding with the blossoming of that flower, have gained for it the popular 

 name by which it is here known. For some time after they were first 

 noticed, rose-bugs appeared to be confined to their favorite, the blossoms 

 of the rose ; but within thirty years they have prodigiously increased in 

 number, have attacked at random various kinds of plants in swarms, and 

 have become notorious for their extensive and deplorable ravages. The 

 grape-vine in particular, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have annually 

 suffered by their depredations ; many other fruit-trees and shrubs, garden 

 vegetables and corn, and even the trees of the forest and the grass of the 

 fields, have been laid under contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, 

 by whom leaves, flowers, and fruits are alike consumed. The unexpected 

 arrival of these insects in swarms, at their first coming, and their sudden 

 disappearance, at the close of their career, are remarkable facts in their 

 history. They come forth from the ground during the second week in 

 June, or about the time of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain 

 from thirty to forty days. At the end of this period the males become 

 exhausted, fall to the ground, and perish, while the females enter the 

 earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, and, after lingering a few 

 days, die also. The eggs laid by each female are about 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. Like 

 other grubs of the Scarabaeians, when not eating, they lie upon the side, 

 with the body curved so that the head and tail are nearly in contact ; they 



* See my Essay in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, Vol. 

 X. p. 8 ; reprinted in the New England Farmer, Vol. VI. p. 18, &c. ; my Discourse 

 before the Massachusetts HorticuUural Society, p. 31, 8vo. Cambridge, 1832. Dr. 

 Greene's communication on this insect in the New England Parmer, Vol VI. pp. 

 41, 49, &c., and my Report on Insects injurious to Vegetation, in Massachusetts, 

 House Document, No. 72, April, 1838, p. 70. 



