32 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 
20), devour the beetle itself. In certain favorable years the 
May beetle is fearfully abundant. It is then necessary to 
resort to hand picking. If the French take the pains to 
practise picking their chafers off the plants by hand, so that 
in one instance about 80,000,000 were collected and de¬ 
stroyed in a single portion of the department of the Lower 
Seine, our gardeners can afford to take similar care. 
The Goldsmith Beetle (Fig. 21).—Of very similar habits 
is an ally of the May beetle, the beautiful woolly yellow 
beetle, which is as 
varied in its tastes 
as the May beetle. 
The insect in the 
beetle state feeds 
on the young, ten¬ 
der leaves of the 
pear, elm, hickory, 
poplar, oak, sweet 
gum and black¬ 
berry ; while the 
grub does much 
Fig. 21. 
Goldsmith Beetle and larva. 
mischief‘to the roots of strawberry plants. The grub is white, 
with a yellowish head, and closely resembles that of the May 
Beetle, simply differing in having longer antennae and feet. 
Rev. Dr. Lockwood has made us acquainted with the 
habits of this destructive chafer. In the middle of June in 
New Jersey the beetle lays in the night about fourteen eggs 
in the soil, each egg being deposited singly and at different 
depths. In about a month, i. e., the middle of July, they 
hatch. In other respects its habits are much as in the May 
beetle. In one instance two acres of plants were “irretriev¬ 
ably ruined.” Dr. Lockwood adds that “the Goldsmith 
grub can be taken at any hour of the day simply by scratch¬ 
ing the earth from around the roots of those plants whose 
dark, shrivelled leaves tell of the enemy’s presence. 
32 
