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beetles, all commonly confused under the general name of “June 
beetles” or “May beetles” or “dor-bugs/’ These large, thick, 
short, snuff-brown beetles, a half inch to more than three fourths 
of an inch in length, nearly as thick from above downwards as 
they are wide, and about half as wide as long, are universally 
known because of their great abundance in May and June, dur¬ 
ing which months they fly at night, filling the air at dusk with 
their hoarse buzzing, and often invading lighted rooms in our 
houses, where they bump and bumble about, as awkward as 
frolicking cart horses. In this stage the insects are but short¬ 
lived, the males dying soon after the sexes pair, and the females 
living but a few days after they have laid their eggs in the 
ground. 
The young grubs hatching among the roots of grass or grass¬ 
like plants commence to feed at once, and live in the earth in 
the larval stage for at least two years (so far as known), most 
of them changing to the dormant pupa from the middle of June 
to September of the second or third year after hatching, and 
becoming fully developed “June beetles” again, still in the earth, 
in August or in September of this same year. These beetles 
do not, as a rule, emerge from their earthen cells until the fol¬ 
lowing spring, but spend the winter at rest, each in the under¬ 
ground cavity made originally by the grub while preparing to 
pupate. In May and June the}" come out and pair and lay their 
eggs as already related. A single species {Cyclocephala immacu- 
lata) has a slightly different life history, the grub not pupating 
until spring. 
Our common and destructive white grubs all belong to the 
genera Lachnosterna and Cyclocephala, by far the greater number 
of species and individuals to the former genus, of which there 
are thirty-two species known to occur in Illinois/ The genus 
Cyclocephala, on the other hand, contains but one species in 
this State. The life histories of these various kinds are not 
sufficiently different to make discrimination of species a matter 
of practical importance, and for economic purposes, consequently, 
the white grubs may usually be classed as one. 
No wholly, or even fairly, satisfactory defence against them 
has yet been discovered, but in the contest with so abundant, 
so widespread, and so destructive an insect even imperfectly pro¬ 
tective measures, or merely palliative ones, are worthy of the 
most careful attention. The practice of the farmers of the Old 
World, where a contest against closely related insects of like 
habit has been waged from time immemorial, is not usually ap¬ 
plicable to American agriculture, but may nevertheless become 
so as conditions gradually change with the denser settlement 
of this country and a corresponding increase in the value of our 
agricultural products. I have consequently summarized the 
economic procedure of England, France, and Germany for the 
“cockchafer grub,” the “vei blanc ” and the “ engerling ,”—the 
names by which the European “white grubs” are known in those 
countries respectively. 
