COLEOPTERA. 
561 
The larvae of the different species of May-beetles are 
commonly classed together under the name “ white grubs.” 
They are often great pests in meadows and in cultivated 
fields. We have known large strawberry plantations to be 
destroyed by them, and have seen large patches of ground 
in pastures from which the dead sod could be rolled as one 
would roll a carpet from a floor, the roots having been all 
destroyed and the ground just beneath the surface finely 
pulverized by these larvae. No satisfactory method of 
fighting this pest has been discovered as yet. If swine be 
turned into fields infested by white grubs they will root 
them up and feed upon them. We have destroyed great 
numbers of the beetles by the use of trap-lanterns, but 
many beneficial insects were destroyed at the same time. 
II. The Rose-bugs .—The common rose-bug, Macrodactylus 
subspinosus (Mac-ro-dac , ty-lus sub-spi-no'sus), is a well-known 
pest. It is a slender beetle, tapering before and behind, and 
I ^ \ measuring three eighths inch in length (Fig. 680). 
Jac It is thickly clothed with fine, yellow, scale-like 
hairs, which give it a yellow color; the legs are 
/ \ long, slender, and of a pale-red color. These beetles 
Fig. 680. appear in early summer, and often do great injury 
to roses and other flowers, and to the foliage of various 
fruit-trees and shrubs. This is a very difficult pest to con¬ 
trol. The best method now known is to use Paris-green 
when safe to do so ; in other cases the beetles should be 
collected by jarring them into a large funnel which is fitted 
into a can. The larvae of rose-bugs feed on the roots of 
plants. 
III. The Shining Leaf-chafers .—These insects resemble 
the May-beetles in form, but can be distinguished from 
them by the position of the hinder pair of spiracles, which 
are visible on the sides below the edges of the wing-covers; 
and they differ from the other leaf-chafers in which the 
spiracles are in this position in that the tarsal claws are of 
unequal size, one claw of each pair being larger than the other. 
37 
