THE AMERICAN CETONIANS. 
41 
brown, but changeable, with pearly and metalhc tints, and 
spattered with numerous mregular black spots ; the under¬ 
side of the body, which is very hairy, is of a black color, with 
the edges of the rings and the legs dull red. It measures 
about six tenths of an inch in length. During the summer 
months the Indian Cetonia is not seen ; but about the middle 
of September a new brood comes forth, the beetles appearing 
fresh and bright, as though they had just completed their last 
transformation. At this time they may be found on the 
flowers of the golden-rod, eating the pollen, and also in great 
numbers on corn-stalks, and on the trunks of the locust-tree, 
feeding upon the sweet sap of these plants. Fortunate would 
it be for us if they fed on these only ; but their love of sweets 
leads them to attack our finest peaches, which, as soon as 
ripe, they begin to devour, and in a ver}^ few hours entirely 
spoil. I have taken a dozen of them from a single peach, 
into which they had burrowed so that nothing but the naked 
tips of their hind-body could be seen ; and not a ripe peach 
remained unbitten by them on the tree. When touched, they 
leave a strong and disagreeable scent upon the fingers. On 
the approach of cold weather they disappear, but I have not 
been able to ascertain what becomes of them at this time, and 
only conjecture that they get into some Avarm and sheltered 
spot, AAdrere they pass the winter in a torpid state, and in the 
spring issue from their retreats, and finish their career by 
depositing their eggs for another brood. Those that are seen 
in the spring want the freshness of the autumnal beetles, a 
circumstance that favors my conjecture. Their hoA^ering over 
and occasionally dropping upon the smdace of the gi'ound, is 
probably for the purpose of selecting a suitable place to enter 
the earth and lay their eggs. Hence I suppose that their 
larA^ge or grubs may live on the roots of herbaceous plants. 
The other Cetonian beetle to be described is the Osmo- 
derma scaher* or rough OsmodeiTna (Fig. 18). It is a large 
* Trichius scaber, Palisot de Beauvois; Gymnodus scaber, Kirby. 
6 
