33 
ions have never been fnllv observed, but everything known re- 
pecting it concurs to show that it is exactly analogous to the 
ockchafer or May bug of Europe (Polyphylla melolontha , 
jinn.), and occupies the place of that species upon this conti- 
ent.” 
Mr. Walsh, the first State Entomologist of Illinois, says con- 
oncerning the “white grub”* *: “It lives several years in the 
irva state, and finally, in the early spring, changes into a dark 
hestnut-colored beetle.” 
The fullest and most detailed of these earlier accounts, is that 
iven by Dr. Riley in 18G9, in his first report as State Ento- 
lologist of Missouri (p. 157): 
Soon after pairing, the female beetle creeps into the earth, especially 
herever the soil is loose and rough, and after depositing her-eggs, to the 
umber of forty or fifty, dies. These hatch in the course of a month, and 
he grubs, growing slowly, do not attain full size till the early spring of 
he third year, when they construct an ovoid chamber, lined with a gelat- 
ious fluid, change into pupa?, and soon afterwards into beetles. These 
ist are at first white, and all the parts soft, as in the pupa, and they 
requently remain in the earth for weeks at a time, till thoroughly hard- 
ned, and then, on some favorable night in May, they rise in swarms and 
11 the air. 
This is their history, though it is very probable, as with the European 
ockchafer (a closely allied species), that, under favorable conditions, some 
f the grubs become pupa?, and even beetles, the fall subsequent to their 
econd spring; but growing torpid on approach of winter, remain in this 
tate in the earth, and do not quit it any sooner than those transformed 
a spring. On this hypothesis, their being occasionally turned up in the 
resh beetle state at fall plowing becomes intelligible. 
Dr. Thomas gives no life history of the grubs in his entomo- 
Dgical reports, but implies the transformation to the imago 
a spring in the following words:! “In April, when the ground 
3 being plowed or spaded, often hundreds of them are cast out 
dready in the perfect state, but then they are of a pale, creamy 
olor; ” and in an article on these insects published in the 
'Farmers’ Review” of Chicago, for 1881, he expresses the opinion 
hat full-grown larvae destructive that fall will do no further 
larm, but will transform to the perfect insect the following 
pring. 
According to Mr. Saunders, t “At the close of the third sum- 
ner they cease feeding and bury themselves, sometimes 2 feet 
leep in the earth, and there, in an oval cavity formed by the 
notions of the larva from side to side, the change to chrysalis 
akes jilace, the beetle digging its way through and appearing 
it the surface in due season. Sometimes the transformation to 
he beetle state takes place in the fall, for we have several 
imes found fresh specimens at this season, showing by their 
* Practical Entomologist, vol. i (18SG), p. GO. 
t Sixth Report State Entomologist of Illinois (1876), p. 98. 
t Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 1872, p. 18. 
* 
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