June bugs

[David M. Robertson]

Jessie Emerson wrote:

> My office mates and I have a running argument about what is and is not a
> June bug.  The native southerners know that the June bug is irridescent
> green.  The "imports" say that the June bug is brown (what I always called a
> May beetle), and that the green bug is a Japanese beetle.  Neither of these
> is a mayfly, which is spindly with gangly legs and transparent wings.

  When I was growing up in Virginia, a Japanese beetle was an iridescent green
beetle about 1/4 inch or a little more long. A June bug was a drab green (I can
easily see it considered brown) beetle, similar in shape to the Japanese beetle,
but much larger (about twice as long). A mayfly was a totally different insect,
not a beetle at all. Then there were snake-doctors and jarflies...

    Snake