THE GREE^ JUNE BEETLE. 5 



green on the dorsal surface, with the margins orange yellow, this 

 latter color frequently extending to other portions of the elytra or 

 wing-coyers. The ventral or lower surface is shining green and 

 orange yellow. The thorax is subtriangular and the head is armed 

 with a horn-like process or clypeal horn which is more prominent in 

 the male. The shape and size of this clypeal horn vary. The length 

 of the beetle is from three-fourths of an inch to one inch in the 

 larger individuals. 



The average size is much smaller than that of the related species, 

 Cotinis mutabilis Gory, 4 and there are other points of difference, the 

 most striking being the uniform metallic green color of the lower 

 surface of the latter and the larger clypeal horn. 



THE EGG. 



The egg (PL I) when first deposited is gray or dull white, oval 

 in outline, and measures about 1.5 millimeters. Within a day or 

 two after deposition the egg becomes perfectly spherical and larger 

 in size, measuring nearly 3 millimeters in diameter. This enlarge- 

 ment of the egg, as has been observed in other related scarabaeid 

 genera, e. g., in Euphoria, is obviously due to the development of 

 the embryo within by the absorption of moisture from the soil. 



The egg is perfectly smooth and rebounds or bounces like a rub- 

 ber ball when struck on a hard surface. Several days after deposi- 

 tion the embryonic outline of the larva begins to take definite shape, 

 as viewed through the thin, transparent eggshell. Finally, when 

 the larva is hatched, what remains of the original eggshell is a mere 

 vestige of thin, transparent tissue. 



Mr. J. E. L. Lauderdale, while employed on truck crop insect in- 

 vestigations at Baton Kouge, La., in August, 1916, observed that each 

 egg was inclosed in a small ball of dirt about one-fourth inch in 

 diameter, and that some of these balls, as many as 15 or 20, occurred 

 together. All of the eggs had been placed by the female in the dirt 

 in the bottom of the cage in which they were confined. 



THE LARVA. 



First Stage. 



The larva when first hatched measures 6 to 6.5 mm. in length and 2 mm. in 

 width. The body is cream white and of uniform width ; the head is yellowish 

 white, soon turning to light brown, later becoming dark brown at its widest 

 part, measuring 1.18 mm. The dorsal surface of the body is clothed with 



4 A large series of specimens of these two species from many localities show such varia- 

 tion as to lead to the belief that mutabilis Gory might be merely a race of nitida L., but 

 careful study has convinced the senior writer that they are distinct. 



