373 



so as to cut off the brood in those districts, and thus the prophesied swarming never 

 came. Ha3 there ever been a break, in any section, respecting their abundance in the 

 swarming year in this eountry ? 



There is considerable usefulness in the record of abundance of the May Beetle for 

 the farmer. He can reckon that those fields in sod in the spring of the swarming 

 year will be the depository for many eggs, the grubs from which will do but little 

 injury that year, but would do much damage to corn or potatoes if planted on the sod 

 ground the following year, but not so much damage the next year, because the grub 

 becomes full-fed and grown to pupa stage by midsummer. The insect really experi- 

 ences the warmth of four summer suns. The first June, an egg; the second June, a 

 small growing grub; the third June, a nearly full-grown grub; the fourth June, a 

 winged beetle. 



I believe the earliest account of this beetle, in respect to a correct expos6 of its life 

 history through all the stages and length of time noted, was made in 1852 by David 

 L. Bernard, Clintondale, Ulster County, N. Y., and may be found in Patent Office 

 Report for 1852 (1833), page 219. It is remarkable that he seems not to have known 

 any common or Latin name for the insect. He simply says the grub is the larva of a 

 beetle, and then describes the growth. 



It is a matter of constant observation everywhere that skunks feed upon the grubs 

 to the extent of extracting every grub lying anywhere near the surface of the ground, 

 and thus aiding the agriculturists in securing larger and better crops. If they were 

 not trapped off so closely they would rescue the crops from many thousands of dollars 

 damage. Moles feed on them, and I am led to believe the raccoon feeds on grubs in 

 small extent and I presume the hedgehog may have that predilection, but I know of 

 no other American mammal in farming districts so disposed, although some others 

 may be led to acquire melolonthivorous habits ; at least, I have found that one class 

 of domesticated animals can be led to acquire a taste for the white grub and very 

 soon exhibit a decided fondness for this grub, literal and pure. 



Linne, my little son, without any definite design exactly, began coaxing his dog, 

 a half terrier and spaniel, to eat the grubs. He was quickly successful, and since 

 then this dog and a St. Charles spaniel from an adjoining farm, taking up the habit, 

 both follow the plow all day to eat every freshly exposed grub, and often they scent 

 them underneath the surface and dig them out. 



To be sure, if the grubs are very plenty Tony and Ned get a surfeit in an hour, but 

 usually they are in the field nearly the whole time the plowman is there, and they 

 feast on the grubs with as much gusto as at the first, some two years ago. Thus 

 they render a better service than the crows or ravens in those long-ago dreamy 

 rural scenes where troupes of these birds are represented following the plowman to 

 pick up every grub, and indeed some wire-worms, but also crowd in angle-worms 

 and all the beneficial ground beetles and their larvae. 



' From trials made with several kinds of domesticated dogs it appears to be easy to 

 induce any variety of this class of quadrupeds to form this habit of eating to a pur- 

 pose. I am not so sure but wild canines, like the fox, wolf, and coyote, eat grubs 

 and other insects when hard pressed by hunger. The members of the Ursine order 

 are abundantly on record as feeders of the honey, as w r ell as the young grubs, of 

 bees, and the bees too. And bears are known to be fond of the white grubs they 

 dig out from rotten logs, as well as the May Beetle grub they find underneath the 

 logs, besides eating locusts and other insects. — [W. L. Devereaux, Clyde, N. Y., Feb- 

 ruary 8, 1890. 



Reply.— We have established little of a reliably definite nature relative to the life 

 term of the larvae of this insect, although a large series of notes has accumulated in 

 the endeavor to establish the definite facts. These notes seem to show that at Wash- 

 ington the ordinary length of larval life is three years and that there are no definite 

 broods ; that beetles appear and oviposit every summer and that larvae of all ages 

 can be found in the ground at any given time. We are not prepared to say that these 



