82 INSECTS. 
afterward. They cast their skins several times., leaving them extended 
and fastened on the leaves; after the last moulting, they lose their 
semi-transparent and greenish color, and acquire an opaque yellowish 
nue. They then leave the rose bushes, some of them slowly creeping 
down the stem, and others rolling up and dropping off, especially 
when the bushes are shaken by the wind. Having reached the 
ground, they burrow to the depth of an inch or more in the earth, 
where each one makes for itself a small oval cell, of grains of earth, 
cemented with a little gummy silk. Having finished their transforma¬ 
tions, and turned to flies, within their cells, they come out of the 
ground early in August, and lay their eggs for a second brood ot 
young. These, in turn, perform their appointed work of destruction 
in the autumn ; they then go into the ground, make their earthen 
cells, remain therein throughout the winter, and appear in the winged 
form, in the following spring and summer. 
During several years past, these pernicious vermin have infested 
the rose bushes in the vicinity of Boston, and have proved so injurious 
to them, as to have excited the attention of the Massachusetts Horti¬ 
cultural Society, by whom a premium of one hundred dollars, for the 
most successful mode of destroying these insects, was offered in the 
summer of 1840. About ten years ago, I observed them in gardens, 
in Cambridge, and then made myself acquainted with their transforma¬ 
tions. At that time, they had not reached Milton, my former place 
of residence, and have appeared in that place only within two or three 
years. They now seem to be gradually extending in all directions, 
and an effectual method for preserving our roses from their attacks 
has become very desirable to all persons who set any value on this 
beautiful ornament of our gardens and shrubberies. Showering or 
syringing the.bushes with a liquor, made by mixing with water the 
juice expressed from tobacco by tobacconists, has been recommended; 
but some caution is necessary in making this mixture of a proper 
strength, for if too strong, it is injurious to plants ; and the experiment 
does not seem, as yet, to have been conducted with sufficient ca*?e to 
insure safety and success. 
Dusting lime over the plants, when wet with dew, has been tried 
and found of some use; but this and all other remedies will probably 
yield in efficacy to Mr. Haggerston’s mixture of whale-oil soap and 
water, in the proportion of two pounds of the soap to fifteen gallons 
