74 INJURIOUS IXSECTS 



ornamental trees, as well as forest trees, appear to be at- 

 tacked indiscriminately. They remain in the beetle state 

 but a short time, and the damage they do is small as 

 compared ■with that which they inflict in 

 their prolonged grub state. The beetle 

 is about an inch long, of the shape 

 shown in figure 44; its legs are long and 

 slender, with sharp claws, by which it 

 can hold readily to the foliage, etc. ; it 

 is of a dark-chestnut color, and covered 

 with minute dots; each wing-cover has 

 two or three slighly elevated longitudinal 

 lines, and the breast is covered with a yellowish down. 

 If the small feelers be examined, the knob at the end 

 will be found to consist of three leaf-like plates. 



Soon after pairing the female enters the earth to the 

 depth of a few inches, she there deposits forty or fifty 

 eggs, and soon dies. The eggs hatch in about a month, 

 and as the grubs are at first quite small, but little is 

 known of their history during their first year, but they 

 no doubt subsist upon any small roots they may come 

 across. In the second year they are large enough to make 

 their presence felt; they then work near the surface, and 

 it seems to make little difference what kind of root they 

 meet with, it is cut off a short distance below the surface of 

 the ground, and the plant wilts and 

 dies. This happens to Indian com, 

 to grass, to tender lettuce in the gar- 

 den, and the woody roots of yonng 

 fruit trees in the nursery, as well as 

 to the more tender ones of the Straw- 

 berry; besides, it often revels in the Fig. 45. -white gbcb. 

 tubers of the potato, making the 

 crop fit only for the pigs; it also does mischief in the 

 flower garden— indeed, no live root seems to come amiss 

 to this general feeder. The grub is full-grown in the 



