=Macrodactylus subspinosa=, or the Rose-chafer, is another melolonthian beetle, which is exceedingly destructive to grapes and various other plants in many parts of the country, in May and June. This insect is smaller than the others of its group, but is equally destructive as a leaf-eater, on account of its numbers. On the grape, it cuts off the young bunch of buds and blossoms, and thus seriously diminishes the crop, as well as by destroying the foliage. It is of a buff-yellow, with black feet, about 0.33 inch long. They continue to ravage vegetation about a month, and then retire into the ground, an inch deep, and deposit their eggs, which hatch in about twenty days, and the young grubs feed upon tender roots, attaining their full size, three-quarters of an inch, before winter, when they descend deeper to hybernate. The Rose-beetle has many natural enemies, among which are the Dragon-flies; but we must depend upon human efforts for their destruction, an almost hopeless task, for their name is legion, but so much the greater necessity for the effort, and as they are sluggish, they may easily be caught and thrown into hot water, or otherwise destroyed. =Tree Pruners= are the larvæ of beetles that excavate a burrow in small limbs of trees, so as to make a section almost across their substance; most of them then bore upward into the limb, and await the action of the winds to break off the part and waft them to the ground, where they pass through their change to the perfect insect. They exercise a wonderful instinct in leaving just fibres enough to support the branch until they are ready for their descent, but it often happens that the twig breaks off partially and hangs by a thread, dying, of course; we see the brown leaves on the trees, and this is the first indication of the presence of the insects. If we examine the fallen spray, we shall be surprised to observe the cause of its falling. In the case of the oak tree, the damage is done by the _Elaphidion villosum_, (Fabricius), a long-horned beetle. The larva remains in these twigs until the next season, hence the importance of gathering and burning all that fall to the ground. An insect of somewhat similar habits often cuts off stout shoots of the Hickory, making a very neat section of a small limb, leaving only the bark, so that it readily breaks off with the wind; and a similar effect has been observed in strong annual shoots of the pear, toward the end of summer. The fallen piece and the stump are cut as neatly as by the shears, but no perforation is discovered along the axis, in which the larva could be concealed; hence we have but to suffer the trimming thus performed without our will, and look upon it as a sort of natural shortening-in of our trees.