GROUND BEETLES.
are friends. Don't step on them when you find them hiding under stones in the garden or scuttling along the pavement. Ground beetles are large, an inch or more long, with shield-shaped bodies and prominent curved jaws for grabbing and holding on to their prey. Most species are black or brown; don't confuse them with May or June beetles which are sometimes the same color and size, though not the same shape. Some of these caterpillar hunters are brilliantly colored, however. Calosoma scrutator, which climbs trees in search of canker- worms, has beautiful iridescent blue-green wing covers with a narrow red margin.

JAPANESE BEETLE (Popillia japonica).
This beautiful beetle, about 1/2 inch long, metallic green with bronze wing covers and white dots along sides and tip of abdomen, is garden enemy number i to most easterners. First found near Philadelphia in 1916 and now established from Maine to South Carolina, it has also been found in most states east of the Mississippi, but such sporadic outbreaks have been suppressed.

Adults appear near the end of June, reach a peak in July and August, and gradually disappear after Labor Day. They feed on at least 275 differ- ent plants and are extra fond of rose, hollyhock, hibiscus, canna, African marigold (but not French), Boston ivy, Virginia creeper, sassafras, horse- chestnut, linden, elm, willow, grapes, raspberries, plum, quince, peach, asparagus, corn, and soybeans. Foliage is usually eaten in a lacy pattern, with most of the veins left, but flowers are completely demolished, with sometimes 50 or more beetles ganging up on a single rose. They seem to prefer light-colored blossoms and are most active on warm, sunny days. Each female feeds for 30 to 45 days, during which she lays eggs at grass roots. Grubs hatching in 10 to 12 days are soft, wrinkled, hairy, white with a brown head and grayish rear end, an inch long when full grown, usually found in a curved position in soil. They feed on grass roots until cold weather when they burrow down 8 or 10 inches in the soil, moving up again in spring to resume feeding. They pupate in late May or June, and there is only one generation a year.