30 
COLEOPTERA. 
rose, and its annual appearance coinciding with the blossom- 
ing of that flower, have gained for it the popular name by 
which it is here known. For some time after they were first 
noticed, rose-bugs appeared to be confined to their favorite, 
the blossoms of the rose ; hut within forty years they have 
prodigiously increased in number, have attacked at random 
various kinds of plants in swarms, and have become notorious 
for their extensive and deplorable ravages. The grape-vine 
in particular, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have annu- 
ally suffered by their depredations ; many other fruit-trees 
and shrubs, garden vegetables and corn, and even the trees 
of the forest and the grass of the fields, have been laid under 
contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, by whom leaves, 
flowers, and fruits are alike consumed. The unexpected 
arrival of these insects in swarms, at their first coming, and 
their sudden disappearance at the close of their career, are 
remarkable facts in their history. They come forth from 
the ground during the second week in June, or about the 
time of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain from 
thirty to forty days. At the end of tliis period the males 
become exhausted, fall to the ground and perish, while the 
females enter the earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, 
and, after lingering a few days, die also. 
The eggs laid by each female’ are about thirty in number, 
and are deposited from one to four inches beneath the sur- 
face of the soil ; they are nearly globular, whitish, and about 
one thirtieth of an inch in diameter, and are hatched twenty 
days after they are laid. The young larvm begin to feed on 
such tender roots as are within their reach. Like other 
grubs of the Scarabaiians, when not eating they lie upon 
the side, with the body curved, so that the head and tail 
Vol. X. p. 8, reprinted in the New England Farmer, Vol. VI. p. 18, &c. ; my Dis- 
course before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, p. 31, 8vo, Cambridge, 
1832; Dr. Green’s communication on this insect in the New England Farmer, 
Vol. VI. pp. 41, 49, & c.; my Report on Insects Injurious to Vegetation, in Massa- 
chusetts House Document, No. 72, April, 1838, p. 70 ; and a communication in the 
New England Farmer, Vol. IX. p. 1. 4 
