The larvae are milky white with six prominent legs. The body is strongly curved, or c-shaped. The head capsule is brownish with prominent chewing mouthparts.
White grubs vary in length from one-eighth inch when first hatched to over an inch when full grown.
There are more than 100 species of adult Phyllophaga beetles. All are robust, oval, brown to blackish June beetles. White grubs spend their entire immature life below the surface of the soil, taking from 1 to 4 years to complete their life cycle. In the northern states, the white grubs generally have 3-year life cycles. There is a continual overlapping of broods, with emergence much heavier in some years than others.