STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
371 
CHBIIRV. LBAVKS. 
shining are rough from being covered with shallow indented points the edges of 
which are wrinkled, and running lengthwise upon each wing cover is three or 
four raised straight lines. The breast is covered with glossy fine yellowish 
gray hairs. 
This species presents several varieties. Commonly the thori^ is a little nar¬ 
rower than the wing covers, whereby the general shape approaches to that of 
an egg with its small end forward. But sometimes the thorax is broader 
equaling the width of the wing covers and giving the individual a form nearly 
cylindrical. The sides of the thorax are regularly rounded, but sometimes a 
specimen may be found having the lateral margin slightly angular in the middle. 
Sometimes the punctures upon the thorax or those upon the wing covers are 
larger and more distinct than usual. By different authors several distinct 
species have heretofore been made out of these varieties of this insect. 
In its larva state it is a thick soft white grub with a brownish 
head and with the hind part of its body curved downwards and 
more or less forward under its breast. It is several years in attain¬ 
ing its growth, so that grubs of different sizes will be found in the 
ground at the same time. When full grown it is almost as thick 
as the little finger. These grubs feed upon the roots of grass and 
other plants, which they cut oft' a short distance beneath the sur¬ 
face; and when they are numerous they advance under ground 
like an army, severing the turf as smoothly as though it were cut 
with a spade, so that it can be raised up in large sheets and folded 
over Or rolled together like a carpet. Often from a dozen to 
twenty grubs will be exposed in every square foot when the turf 
is thus raised. Large patches of this kind will occur in the 
middle of a meadow or pasture, every blade of the grass being 
brown and dead. 
Early in spring, in spading or plowing the ground, these beetles 
arc frequently exhumed, or sometimes in turning over a large 
stone one of them will be found beneath, lying in a smooth cavity 
or little round hollow in the dirt, like a chicken in its shell. 
This cavity or cell is formed by the grub in the preceding autumn. 
Turning itself around and around, it presses upon and compacts 
the dirt and moulds it into this cell for its winter residence; and 
in this cell it changes first to a pupa, in which the legs and wing- 
cases of the insect are seen in their rudimentary state, aud after¬ 
wards to a beetle, such as we have above described. This beetle 
lies dormant in its cell until the warmth of the incoming summer 
