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21 
also, occasionally, on ears of corn before they harden, and has also been 
recorded as feeding upon the sap exuding from the wounds in the 
branches of trees. That it does not confine itself to injured twigs is 
shown by the item published in Insect Life (Vol. LV, p. 75), in which it 
is recorded as burrowing into the tender branches of oak trees. In this 
case, which was at Springfield, Mo., the insects were very numerous, and 
caused the destruction of many young branches of black oak. scrub 
oak, and postoak. A beneficial habit was noticed by Mr.W. W. Meech, 
the well-known quince grower of Vineland, N.J.,and is recorded in 
Volume I (pp. 88-89), Insect Life. Mr. Meech found the adult beetles 
eating the fungus, Restelia aurantiaca, upon his quince trees. They 
even alighted upon the 
fungus in his basket 
when he was gathering 
it and ate it greedily. 
The closely allied spe- 
cieS, Allorhina mutabilis, 
which occurs in the ex- 
treme southwestern por- 
tions of the United States, 
has similar habits and is 
even more noted as dam- 
aging fruit. This insect 
appears after the first 
summer rains in Arizona 
and New Mexico and 
immediately seeks the 
peach orchards, where it 
selecis the choicest fruits Fic. 6.—Allorhina nitida: a, adult; b. larva; ec, pupa in a eut-open 
: ; cell; d, pupa cell—natural size (original. 
and ruins them. In case 
there are no ripening peaches, it feeds upon grapes and even upon 
growing cornstalks, disappearing during the latter part of August. A 
correspondent, Mr. John B. Miano, of Tombstone, Ariz., writing to the 
Department in September, 1889, said that frequently these beetles could 
be noticed by thousands and millions in the trees, devouring the apri- 
cots, peaches, figs, prunes, plums, pears, apples, and grapes. 
In its larval condition Allorhina nitida is a **white grub,” mueh 
resembling the common white grubs of the northern States, which are 
the larvee of the species of Lachnosterna, a genus of searabieid beetles 
belonging to quite a different tribe from the Allorhina. These white 
grubs of the Allorhina live at or below the surface of the ground, and 
frequently occur in countless numbers in grass lawns, in strawberry 
beds, in celery beds, and in fact wherever the soil is very rich and the 
vegetation is vigorous. The actual amount of damage done by these 
larve is problematical, and, in fact, it is even problematical whether 
they normally do damage at all. In a note published in the Canadian 
Entomologist for October, 1879, the writer mentioned the fact of the 
