222 Harris's Insects of New England 



move with difficulty on a level surface, and are continually falling over on 

 one side or the other. They attain their full size in the autumn, being 

 then nearly three quarters of an inch long, and about an eighth of an inch 

 in diameter. They are of a yelloAvish white color, with a tinge of blue 

 towards the hinder extremity, which is thick and obtuse or rounded ; a 

 few short hairs are scattered on the surface of the body ; there are six 

 short legs, namely, a pair to each of the first three rings behind the head ; 

 and the latter is covered with a horny shell of a pale rust color. In Octo- 

 ber they descend below the reach of frost, and pass the winter in a torpid 

 state. In the spring they approach towards the surface, and each one 

 forms for itself a little cell of an oval shape, by turning round a great 

 many times, so as to compress the earth, and render the inside of the cav- 

 ity hard and smooth. Within this cell the grub is transformed to a pupa, 

 during the month of May, by casting off its skin, which is pushed down- 

 wards in folds from the head to the tail. The pupa has somewhat the 

 form of the perfected beetle ; but it is of a yellowish white color, and its 

 short stump-like wings, its antennae, and its legs are folded upon the breast, 

 and its whole body is enclosed in a thin film, that wraps each part sepa- 

 rately. During the month of June this filmy skin is rent, the included 

 beetle withdraws from it its body and its limbs, bursts open its earthen 

 cell, and digs its way to the surface of the ground. Thus the various 

 changes, from the egg to the full development of the perfected beetle, are 

 completed within the space of one year. 



" Such being the metamorphoses and habits of these insects, it is evi- 

 dent that we cannot attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa state ; 

 the enemy, in these stages, is beyond our reach, and is subject to the con- 

 trol only of the natural but unknown means appointed by the Author of 

 Nature to keep the insect tribes in check. When they have issued from 

 their subterranean retreats, and have congregated upon our vines, trees, 

 and other vegetable productions, in the complete enjoyment of their pro- 

 pensities, we must unite our efforts to seize and crush the invaders. 

 They must indeed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive them of life, 

 for they are not affected by any of the applications usually found destruc- 

 tive to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gathering 

 them by hand, or shaking them or brushing them from the plants into tin 

 vessels containing a little water. They should be collected daily during 

 the period of their visitation, and should be committed to the Hames, or 

 killed by scalding water. The late John Lowell, Esq. states, (Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Repository, Vol. IX. p. 1 15,) that in 1823, he 

 discovered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs " in vast numbers, such 

 as could not be described, and would not be believed if they were described, 

 or, at least, none but an ocular witness could conceive of their numbers. 

 Destruction by hand was out of the question," in this case. He put sheets 

 under the tree, and shook them down, and burned them. Dr. Green, of 

 Mansfield, whose investigations have thrown much light on the history of 

 this insect, proposes protecting plants with millinet, and says that in this 

 way only did he succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. 

 His remarks also show the utility of gathering them. " F.ighty-six of 

 these spoilers," says he, " were known to infest a single rose-bud, and 

 were crushed with one grasp of the hand." Suppose, as was probably 

 the case, that one half of them were females ; by this destruction, eight 

 hundred eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. During 



