119 
A similar experiment with adults of L. hirticula was started 
April 8, 1890, and here also the first two beetles emerged the 
8th of May. On the 25th of June no eggs were to be found, 
but on the* 28th eggs were first discovered—of a shape to indi¬ 
cate their recent extrusion. Nine of these were isolated, and from 
them larvae hatched on the 7th of July. 
May 8, 1891, both sexes of this species were confined in a bar¬ 
rel of earth sunk in the ground and planted to corn, the beetles 
being supplied with elm leaves as food. They deposited eggs 
June 5 from two to three inches below the surface, but the en¬ 
closure being invaded by a parasitic fungus (Sporotrichum), the 
experiment came to an end before the eggs had hatched. 
Observations on Lachnosterna fusca are closely parallel to the 
foregoing. Beetles to the number of twenty-eight, collected from 
the earth in corn fields and in sod from April 8 to 28, were 
placed in the insectary, where they commenced to emerge May 
1, but began almost at once to die. They were fed, as above, 
on oak, ash, chestnut, and elm, preferring the oak and the elm. 
On the 4th of June two beetles were found in cavities in the 
earth below the sod, one of them with a freshly laid egg just 
under the abdomen. Fungous disease appearing in this lot of 
beetles interrupted the experiment. May 8, 1891, a large num¬ 
ber of beetles of L. fusca caught at a lamp or dug from the 
earth were used for a similar experiment. June 1 oviposition 
began, the eggs being deposited about two inches below the sur¬ 
face, among the corn roots in the breeding cage, singly, as before, 
without special preparation of the cavity for their reception. 
A similar trial with L. rugosa , taken from earth and weeds 
at Urbana June 1, 1891, gave us the eggs June 11, disposed 
singly about an inch below the surface; and in another,' with 
L. gibbosa collected May 20, the eggs were found June 5 about 
three inches below the surface in the loose earth of the breeding 
cage, placed separately, but clustered somewhat, three to six in 
a group. 
The eggs of all these species agreed in color, shape, and gen¬ 
eral appearance with those obtained from L. inversa, as described 
above. 
Larval Period— Our knowledge of the length of life of the white 
grubs in the larval stage is based solely upon inferences mostly 
drawn from the varying sizes of the grubs that appear in collec¬ 
tions made at any given time. Since the eggs are all deposited 
practically within a month, and since the larva grows but slowly, 
differences in size due to variations in time of hatching must be 
but small. It is easily seen, however, from almost any large 
collection made in spring or early summer at one time and place 
that grubs of the same species or group can be readily assorted 
into two lots differing notably in size, and never, so far as my 
