CATALOGUE OF INSECTS. 



273 



PASSALTJS Fabr. 

 P. cornutus Fabr. Common everywhere throughout the State iu rotten wood. 



Family SCARABJEIDJE. 



These are the " latnellicorn " beetles, iu which the antenna has an oval club 



at the tip, composed of from three to seven leaves or lamellae, usually much 



longer in the male. These leaves are closely opposable, so that at rest the club 



seems solid. The species vary much in shape and appearance, and range from 



small to very large ; in habits, from feeders on leaves to 



burrowers in excrement. In all of them the legs are 



formed for digging, the fore-tibiit being almost always 



flattened and toothed at the outer edge. The tarsi are 



generally long, except on the fore-legs, and alwavs 5- 



jointed, so that the insects are easily recognizable. 



The larvae are white grubs and live in decaying wood, 

 in excrement, in decaying vegetation generally, or in the 

 ground on the roots of plants. They are white or yellow 

 in color, with a brown, horny head bearing prominent 

 mandibles. They are much wrinkled and enlarged toward 

 the posterior extremity, where they end in a smooth, 

 obtusely-rounded, often discolored sac. They lie parti}' 

 coiled up, the tip of the abdomen usually about touching 

 the long, spiny legs. 



The feeders in excrementitious matter are harmless, of 

 course, but so much cannot be said for those that feed 

 underground on the roots of plants. Grass lands are. as 

 a rule, infested, and in some cases lawns are completely 

 destroyed by the grubs which have sheared off every root 

 These are usually the larvie of the "fig-eater." In some 

 cases strawberry fields become infested and many plants are destroyed by the 

 larva- of "May-beetles" or "June-bugs." Corn and other plants are rarely 

 attacked in our State, where, as a whole, white grub injury is not especially 

 severe. 



Remedial measures are largely unsatisfactory when once the grubs have 

 established themselves. In lawns a herosene emulsion washed down by an 

 abundance of water is tolerably satisfactory, but in the field this becomes 

 impractical. A free use of the salty fertilizers, especially kainit, often serves 

 as a palliative, but it is not at all reliable in all cases or on all soils. 



Fall plowing turns out recently matured beetles and pupa.- and lessens the 

 adults for the ensuing year, and this is a good general practice where the grubs 

 are abundant. 



Iu rare cases, e. g. the "rose-chafer," it is the adult and not the larva that 

 becomes injurious, aud the methods of treatment must be modified accordingly. 



18 ENT 



Fig. 117 — Antenna ot 

 Larnellicorn beetle to 

 show the struc- 

 ture of club. 



at a certain depth. 



