GARDEN CHAFER ; MAY-BUG ; ROSE BEETLE. 7 



of reports, I am only aware of one note of the appearance of tliis 

 Chafer to any remarkable amount having been sent me. This was at 

 a locality near Northwich in Cheshire, where it was noted on the 18th 

 of June, 1885, that the beetles were flying in thousands over the fields, 

 and were also on the ground in great numbers ; also that they appeared 

 "to be emerging from holes in the soil " : a few days later the beetles 

 had so far disappeared that they were not to be seen in any great 

 numbers together. It was specially remarked that grubs resembling 

 Cockchafer grubs had been observed in the same field in the previous 

 year " when ploughing up the grass-sod for corn, so no doubt " they 

 had then been feeding at the Grass roots." * 



Since then I have heard little about this infestation until the past 

 season, when the beetles were noticed in large numbers on various kinds 

 of orchard fruit trees in the neighbourhood of Haslemere in Surrey, 

 and the following note of damage at Grass roots caused by the Chafer 

 maggot, in a locality where infestation of the Apple trees by the parent 

 Chafer beetles had been noticed in the preceding June, was sent me 

 on the 19th of September, by Mr. Wm. Jenkins, from The Willows, 

 Abergavenny, Mon. : — 



" I send herewith a few specimens of grubs which are doing much 

 damage to the Grass in my orchard, and in a meadow which is near. 

 The parts that are attacked are quite yellow, and the surface of the 

 turf comes off easily, revealing the grubs in great abundance." . . . 

 " They seem to me to resemble the grub of the Field or Garden Chafer, 

 which you depict at p. 381 of your ' Manual.' 



" I would mention that on the 15th of June, the Apple trees in the 

 orchard referred to were much infested by a small Chafer, called here 

 the ' Button Fly.' Great numbers were caught by shaking them down 

 on to a sheet spread under the trees, but many escaped by flying 

 away." ... "I find that the pest exists in some fields adjoining 

 my own farm, and the starlings are very busy at work there at present. 

 I hope they will visit my farm soon ; meantime the fowls are doing 

 what they can to find out the grubs, though it is a difficult task for 

 them. I do not remember such a visitation before." . . . 



On examination of the specimens forwarded, I found them to be 

 the maggots of the Garden Chafer (figured at p. 6). These are very 

 like Cockchafer grubs in appearance, but much smaller ; whitish and 

 fleshy, with a chestnut or ochreous-coloured head, furnished with rusty- 

 coloured jaws, darker at the tips, and the hinder extremity of the body 

 somewhat swelled, and appearing to be of a lead colour from the con- 

 tained food showing through the skin. The grubs, for the most part, 

 lie curved head and tail together, but they are furnished with a lougish 



• See ' Report on Injurious Insects for 1885 ' (Ninth Report), by Ed., p. 28. 



