180 MISC. PUBLICATION 657, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Many species seem to prefer fields to heavily wooded lands, being, 
therefore, a farm and prairie as well as a forest group. Adults are 
leaf feeders, and many shrubs, herbs, cultivated plants, and trees are 
attacked. Severe defoliation may occur locally. The larval food 
habits are unknown, except that the larvae of the oriental beetle are 
destructive to vegetable gardens. 
Pachystethus oblivia (Horn) appears to be a common species of an 
otherwise little-known group. It occurs in open, scrubby pine forests 
from Georgia north to New York and west to Lake Michigan. The 
female is larger and lighter colored than the male, being about 9 mm. 
long and light tan; the male is 6 to 7 mm. long and has a greenish- 
bronze head and pronotum and dark-tan wing covers. The males 
resemble Japanese beetles, but are smaller. The hfe cycle for 
P. oblivia has recently been determined for the latitude of central 
Michigan. As in other species of this genera, the cycle requires 1 
year. “Adults appear during the latter half of Jt une, and after concen- 
trating on jack pine, pr oceed immediately to feed and mate. These 
activities continue for about 10 days, by which time egg laying is com- 
plete. The eggs are laid in the soil within a few yards of the food trees 
and hatch in 10 to 15 days, the larval stage beginning toward the last 
of July. The larva is the overwintering form. Pupation occurs early 
in June, and 2 or 3 weeks later the adults have formed and are ready 
to emerge. 
Injury is chiefly that of deralintiont and is heaviest on open or 
orchard-type trees. Jack pine is the most heavily attacked in Michi- 
gan, pitch pine in New York may suffer a loss of 75 percent of the cur- 
rent year’s needles, and Virginia, mountain, red, and white pine, among 
others, may be appreciably injured. 
Defoliation is almost entirely in new growth, injury being due to 
a notch eaten in each leaf just above the ‘bundle sheath. The needles 
bend down at this point, and die, giving the trees a brownish appear- 
ance. Such attack has resulted in over 75 percent defoliation in 
certain areas on the Manistee National Forest. In most instances the 
bases of the leaves do not die; late in the season of attack and the 
following spring, they frequently grow to about one-half their normal 
length. The food of the larvae includes rootlets, and doubtless other 
material. Of the seedlings used in about 80 tests, less than 1 percent 
were killed. Under natural conditions it seems that little or no 
damage should occur. Little is known of the feeding habits of the 
other species of this genus. 
The genus Strzg goder ma Burm. is represented by only a few species, 
S. arboricola (F-.) being the most important. Adults are oval-shaped, 
and about 12 mm. long. The head, prothorax, and scutellum are dull 
blackish green, and the wing covers are yellowish or piceous, and thinly 
clothed with long, grayish hairs. It is common in the C entral States. 
This species has a 1- year life cycle, pupation occurring in the spring, 
and the larvae overwintering. The adults feed on the buds and flowers 
of roses and waterlilies, but the larval feeding habits are unknown. 
The larvae are said to occur in sandy wasteland or dunes. 
The Japanese beetle(Popillia japonica Newm.) was introduced 
into New Jersey from Japan prior to 1916, and has now spread as far 
west as St. Louis. The adult has a shiny, bronze-green head and 
prothorax, deep-tan wing covers, and is about 12 mm. Tong. Two dis- 
