480 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
Prom other sources I was told that when they first show 
themselves each year, it is chiefly in the fields of spring wheat. 
They entirely consume the young wheat plants, and then invade 
the orchards. In consequence of this, many persons are firmly 
persuaded it is the spring wheat that breeds these beetles; and 
some have made it a point not to have any spring wheat sowed 
upon their farms, so long as these insects continue in their 
neighborhood. But this idea is evidently erroneous. We have 
a sufficient proof of this, in the fact, that this same insect has for 
many years been excessively numerous in Eastern Massachusetts, 
w'here no wheat, or but a very small quantity, is raised. The 
known habits of the larva, moreover, show that wheat is by no 
means essential to it. 
This beetle belongs to the Family Melolonthuwe and the 
Order Coleoptera, the same group which includes a common 
insect of kindred habits, the May beetle (Lacknosterna quercina ), 
which some years is so numerous in particular localities, as to 
wholly destroy tiie fruit when in its germ. One of the insects 
most common in Europe and most often mentioned in books, the 
cockchaffer, also belongs to this group; and Dr. Harris states 
that it would be more correct to call the species under considera¬ 
tion the rose-chaffer, instead of rose-bug. But this would lead 
to confusion, as another insect (Cetonia aurata ), is commonly 
called the rose-chaffer. Rose-beetle would be the most appro¬ 
priate name by which to designate it, the term “ bug” in strict¬ 
ness belonging only to insects of the Order Hemiptera, although 
in this country it is universally current for Coleopterous insects 
also; and the proper term for the latter insects, “beetle,” is 
never heard among us, except occasionally from a person who 
has learned it from books. This insect, however, has become so 
widely known by the name rose-bug, that it is useless to attempt 
changing this name. 
Its scientific name is Macrodactylus subspinosus. The generic 
name Macrodactylus, i. e. great claws or great feet, was bestowed 
upon it by the eminent French entomologist Latreille, in conse¬ 
quence of the remarkable length of its feet. Nearly a dozen 
other insects are now known which rank in this genus, all of 
them natives of Brazil or of Mexico. Its specific name subspin ■ 
