282 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



vcre summer pruning, wliicli in some cases thi-eatens serious 

 injury, thougli in others the unsightliness produced is the 

 only evil. 



The young larvse, when first hatched, are about one twentieth 

 of an inch long, yellowish white in color, with eyes and claws 

 tinged with red. They immediately drop from the tree, un- 

 less the branches have previously fallen, and enter the ground 

 for their long imprisonment, and are supposed by some to do 

 extensive though mrseen injmy to the roots of ti'ees during 

 their progress to their matm'e condition. 



They are peculiarly a woodland insect, not being produced 

 upon the prairies of the West, and disappearing from culti- 

 vated fields. Certain insects, birds, and probably vermin, de- 

 stroy them in their various stages, so that, although the num- 

 ber hatched seems incalculable, they do not, on the whole, ad- 

 vance in numbers, but probably rather recede. 



ROSE BUG, OR MACRODACTTLUS SUBSPINOSA. 



Fig. 141. This is an insect of the beetle tribe, about 



half an inch long, of a yellowish-brown color, 

 having, like the May-bug, a pair of gauze wings 

 protected by hard coverings, and large feet 

 that feel like claws when they touch the skin. 

 They appear suddenly in June, and continue for 

 Eggs as deposited a fcw wccks, whcu the fcmalcs crawl into the 

 m the earth. ground, where they deposit about thirty eggs, 



which are whitish and almost globular. These hatch in about 

 twenty days, and the young grow to their full size before win- 

 ter. At the approach of severe weather they descend into the 

 ground below the reach of frost, and become torpid. Reviving 

 in the spring, and working their way back to the sm-face, un- 

 dergoing in the mean time some changes, they come out to 

 their accustomed work at the usual season, all prepar-ed for 

 mischief 



They are voracious yet dainty feeders, preferring the blos- 

 soms of the rose and the grape, and the ripening fruit of 

 the cherry, which they utterly destroy ; but when these can 

 not be had, stripping the linden and cherry trees of their 



a. iDsect perfected. 



