55 
[ 315 ] 
our Norton’s Virginia grape-vines, eating the leaves in a manner 
similar to the leaf inclosed. The first I noticed them was about 
four days ago, when, about sun-down, in my pear orchard, they 
were flying close to the ground, in a ziz-zag style, as if they were 
hunting for something, and were in such numbers as to sound like 
a swarm of bees. After I had eaten my supper, and it had be¬ 
come quite dark, I discovered them in great numbers on the Nor¬ 
ton’s Virginia vines. They would shake oft very easy, and play 
possum’ for a few minutes, and then fly up and commence again. 
The next morning 1 went out to sprinkle the vines with lime, and 
to my surprise, found there was not a beetle on the vines; all 
were gone; but of two hundred and fifty vines they had eaten 
half of the leaves. In searching, I found large numbers in the 
ground, under the vines, but apparently not in so great numbers 
as they were on the vines the night before. This was Friday 
morning. I was obliged to go to Cairo on business, and did not 
get back till Sunday, and on my return found that the vines did 
not look as if they had been injured any during my absence, or at 
least but very little. I took a look to-day and found them still in 
the ground, about half an inch deep, and generally in pairs. In 
my vineyard of twenty varieties, they have disturbed none but 
Norton’s Virginia. In a neighboring vineyard containing say a 
dozen Norton’s, with several thousand Concords and Ives, they 
have eaten all the Norton’s, and worked a little upon some ad¬ 
joining Concords, but they were evidently not suited to their 
taste. Judge Brown, who has but three or four Norton vines, in 
a vineyard of three or four hundred vines of different kinds, finds 
his Nortons badly eaten and none of the others touched. I shall 
examine the vines to-night, and if possible ascertain if they come 
out of the ground and eat the vines. They do not eat at all in 
the day time.” 
Dr. Harris speaks of the Anomalm as being diurnal in their hab¬ 
its, and the specific name of lucicola given to this species by Fa- 
bricius, if indeed it be the same, means loving or seeking the 
lio'ht. But from Mr. Ayres’s observations, it appears that, like 
many of our larger Melolonthians, this is a night-teediug species. 
Mr. Ayres’s description of its mode ot flight calls to our mind the 
low, mousing flight of another and more common, allied species, 
