May Bugs
A name sometimes given to certain beetles which are destructive, in the larval form, to the roots of numerous plants, including many that are cultivated in fields and in gardens. The perfect insects also are very destructive, often stripping the leaves almost entirely from trees, especially from Oaks, low fruit-trees, and Rose bushes.
The most successful methods for limiting the number of these insects are, hand-picking, or shaking them off the shrubs or bushes into vessels in the very early morning, or collecting the grubs, when these are exposed by digging or ploughing the soil. In either case, the insects found should be at once destroyed. Birds also render good assistance in this direction by the number that they eat, either as beetles or as larvae. Among the birds most useful in this way, starlings and rooks deserve special mention. Other remedies will be found under Cockchafer and Insecticides (which see). There are several kinds of beetles indigenous to England included under the name of May Bugs; of these, the more important are the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris, and the Lesser May Bug (Phyllopertha horticola).
The Cockchafer has been already noticed in this work. It is very abundant in the South of England, but becomes local and scarce in Scotland. It may be added here, that, in the Cockchafer, the wing-cases and legs are yellowish-brown, with a dash of red, but are covered with short, fine, grey hairs, which are very readily rubbed off. The rest of the upper surface is mostly pitch-black, with paler pubescence. The antennae, or feelers, are rusty-red. The lower surface of the body is black, with paler pubescence, and five conspicuous white triangular spots on the sides of the segments of the abdomen.
The Lesser May Bug is nearly as abundant as its larger ally in the South of Britain, and in the North is far more common than that insect. It is much smaller, being only 1/3in. to 2/5in. long, and the club of the antennae is composed of only three, instead of six or seven, flattened joints. In colour of wing-cases, and in form, it is much like the Cockchafer, but the tip of the body is not prolonged as in that species. Occasionally, the wing-cases are brown or green-black. The rest of the body is shining green or blue-black, with long, erect, paler hairs on certain parts. The beetles at times do considerable damage to Roses and to fruit-trees, by feeding on the stamens and petals of the flowers. They may, however, in dull weather, be successfully shaken off the bushes into an inverted umbrella, and should be collected and destroyed when so numerous as to become troublesome. The larvae resemble those of the Cockchafer, except in size. They feed on the roots of many garden plants, and also on those of the Fir; and they are often present in flower-pots, the plants in which they frequently destroy, causing them to fade early. At times, they are very troublesome. The methods recommended for the destruction of the larvae of the Cockchafer will be found useful against this species also. If a pot plant becomes sickly without visible cause, it should be turned out, with the earth attached to the roots, and there will then often be found one or more of the larvae of the Lesser May Bug feeding on it.