s lerein an abundant supply of food. The ants do not

probably finding that it remains in one spot, meddle with it, not interfere with the conduct of their nest. and does will notice that the larva is represented in a The reader This is done because it is the natural, and curved attitude. of these larvae. Their legs are so indeed the needful, attitude the end of the body is so large, that they cannot small, and by their legs ; and, if laid on a flat surface, support themselves roll over on their sides. This clumsiness-if we immediately form is not peculiar to the Eose Beetle, but may so call it— of is found in all the group. , ^ , in the larval state for the full period,

After it has remained a cocoon from the wood-chips or other it makes for itself which it has been feeding; and it sometimes materials on tree-trunk is suddenly blovm or happens that when a decayed these cocoons roll out rom cut down, a great quantity of when the larva has taken up its abode among the ruins. Even nest, it makes a cocoon from the surrounding in an ants’ is shown on the same A group of these cocoons materials. similar but rarer Beetle also inhabits England. ^ A sonmwhat nobilis, and may at once be recognise y It is called Gnorimus are not waved at their edges. a glance at the elytra, which and general shape, it is very much ^ OtLrwise, in habits, colour, and the body is shining green-gold The like the Eose Beetle, and there are white spots scatelytra, however, are wrinkled, spots on the edges of the tered over them. There are also white covered with hairs. It is generally ^ abdomen, and the breast is found on umbelliferous flowers. |

respecting the well-kno« must say a word or two

■Wb which is called indifferent y insect, the Phyllopertha horticda, to anglers by its old or June Boa, and is known bLokeu CnocK often corrupted by them jn h. , “Lme of CoCH-T-BoanHn, It is about hal . , ladicrous word Cockerbundy.

the rather elytra and dotk-gto® in length, and has reddish-brown

inch W It is found in great abundance-often

head and thoraa. ongag^ » abundance for any eacept anglers-busily

great the young fruit of o ^ the leaves, blossoms, and even

Louring In its larval state it does ^

orchard-trees. much after the fa-h. it devours the roots,

grasses, of which

Plate V. Chafers.

Cetonis aurata. 2. Melolontha vulgaris (Male). 3. Geotrupes stercorarius. 4. Lucanus cervus. 5. Lucanus cervus, larva (very young). 6. Cetonia aurata, larva (three parts grown). 7. Cetonia aurata (Pupa cases or Cocoons). 8. Geotrupes stercorarius, larva (young). 9. Melolontha vulgaris, larva (three parts grown). PlANT Wild Rose (Hosa canina).

I of the cockchafer grub, whose ill deeds will presently be I recorded.

The insect belongs to the family Eutelidse, the members of i which have strong, horny mandibles, those of the preceding family being only horny on the outside ; and, besides these differences, the elytra are lined with a membrane which projects a little behind. In the genus to which we are referring, the antennae have nine joints, the clypeus is short, and the thorax is narrowed behind. The name PhyllopcTtlin is composed of two Greek words, signifying ‘ leaf-destroyer,’ and is very appropriately given to this insect, on account of the ravages which it makes among the leaves of fruit-trees. The specific title of horticolct is formed from two Latin words, and signifies ‘ garden-frequenting.’

Next we come to the small though important family of the Melolonthidae, which includes those insects which are popularly called Cockchafers. Only five species of this family inhabit England, and of these only two are even tolerably common. These two, however, more than compensate by their enormous numbers for the paucity of the other species ; and in some seasons are so exceedingly plentiful that they become an absolute pest to the agriculturist, laying waste thousands of trees, and destroying acre upon acre of pasture land.

The family of the Melolonthidae have very strong mandibles as 18 evident from the havoc which the insects make amonff leaves, and the outer lobe of the maxill® is strongly toothed. c 1 ub of the a^^ennae are ten-jointed, and the’ male is composed of seven joints, while that of the female contains only six. The flattened plates of the club are much smaller in the female than in the opposite sex.

On Plate y. Fig 2, is shown a male specimen of the common Cockchafer {Melolontha vulgaHs) crawling to the trunk of a tree. The insect is so well known that a detailed description is scarcely necessary. The peculiar bent projection at the end of the abdomen is worthy of notice, fis are the rows of triangular Dreast, and the elytra are covered with a yellowish dnwr. w.gr:' Unless the insect have quite newly emerged from the 1 »tate and been bandied vee, earejl,, I 2 tb! VZl

rubbed off, and tbe beauty of the specinaen greatly impaired ; specimen even of so common a Beetle is so that a really perfect worth having. of this insect demands a hnef notice. 1 ne The life history her eggs in the ground, where in due time they female deposits begin to feed upon the roots of are hatched, and straightway form the chief part of their diet. They remain in grass, which the ground for three years, continually destroying grass-roots, to a wonderful size ; so large and fat, mdeed, that and increasing seems scarcely able to hold its contents. their tightened skin are dissected, it really seems still more wonderful And when they have burst with sheer fat and gorging. I that they should not of them, and fonnd them more troublehave opened numbers the quantity of fat being so enorsome than any other larv®, of wine in which they were sunk had to

mous that the spirits and over again before it was sufficiently cl^r be changed over to be seen. Then, even when that diffito allow the structure for the whole of the culty was overcome, another remained, so crammed with a impure of grassstomach and intestines was it looked like a well-stuffed and very roots and earth, that thin skin. The quantity of root black sausage, with a very insects is very g-reat ; in some consumed by one of these the grass, ttat th they have so completely destroyed places from the ground, and might Lf has been completely detached turf-cutters spade had up by hand as easily as if the be rolled grubs do not confine under it. These mischievous nassed grass-roots, but eat many of Lmselves to from them. One of the potato often suffering terribly crops, V. Fig. 9, as it appears when theL larvi is shown on Plate about one-third grown. rooks are our best friends vn »

I believe that the m some parts known as White-worm this eiub— technically of to he able to detect the presence of TfSland They seem at work on the grass-roots, and hy heax^o'g its teeth

L they drag out a hole with wonderful rapidity, Sen pecking tte ^rul just as grass lands of the White-worm The rooks, rn fac^ and take it home to their young.

L iu riddine our the larvm of the daddydong- egs.

To the starlings in destroying a ;

When full-fed, the grub makes for itself to work as much destructi and then emerges, only

earth,

above the soil as it did below. In the larval state it fed upon the roots of grasses, and was out of sight ; it now feeds on the leaves of trees, and is out of reach. In this way the Beetles are scarcely less mischievous than they were in their former state, for they will sometimes denude whole tracts of trees, so that, in the full beauty of summer-tide, the trees look as if the season were the depth of winter. In this country we are almost ignorant of the harm which the Cockchafer can do, for, although our crops and potatoes often suffer severely from its attacks, they are not wholly ruined, as is the case on the Continent. In consequence of the noxious character of this Beetle, I never had the least scruple in killing it, and can strongly recommend it to my readers as an excellent ‘subject’ for the study of insect anatomy. Thus a double service is rendered : first to the country by its death, which prevents it from perpetuating a numerous progeny ; and next to the investigator, because it affords him a subject which will train both the hand and the eye, and which can be so easily obtained that he need not be afraid of spoiling a few specimens. Although this Beetle is at present nothing but an unmitigated pest, I cannot but think that it yet be made to turn to the service of man. I should not wonder if the silkworm were originally a great plague to gardeners until its real value was discovered, and so it is not utterly impossible that some mode may be found of turning the Cockchafer to account. At present it is but of little use to man. It is employed rather largely during its brief existence in the Beetle state as bait for sea-fish, and there has been an attempt made to procure a sort of coarse oil from the fat bodies of the grubs. Some utilitarians, of abnormal boldness, have proposed that it might be prepared as an article of food, and have suggested that it may be thought as much a delicacy as is the palmworm of the West Indies. But they entirely forget that the palm-worm lives in the interior of trees, and that it contains nothing but vegetable matter, whereas a full-grown Cockchafer grub contains a full thimbleful of earth, a substance which no amount of cooking could render palatable.

The family of the Geotrupidge has eleven joints in the antenna, of which three form the club, and the margin of the head divides the eyes somewhat like the structure of the

G-yrini, except that, in the case of those insects, the eyes are divided by a broad, flat band, and in the present family by a narrow ridge of horny substance. The body is very convex and the thorax large, in order to give room for the muscles that move the large wings and the powerful digging fore-legs. Three genera of Geotrupidse exist in England, two of which will be illustrated by examples.

On Plate V. Fig. 3, may be seen one of the commonest species, represented as crawling up the trunk of a English tree. This is the Geotrwpes stercorarius, popularly known as the Doe Beetle, the Flyino Watchman, the Dumble-dok, and similar names, according to the locality in which it lives. The genus Geotrupes has the basal joint of the antenna rather long, and the fourth joint shorter than the fifth, the body very convex, and the basal joint of the tarsus is the shortest. The name Geotrwpes is formed from two Greek words, generic ‘ earth-digger,’ and, as we shall presently see, is a signifying very appropriate one.

The colour of this species is black above, sometimes glossed with green or blue, and rich shining-violet beneath. On the middle of the clypeus there is a sharp tubercle. The thorax is smooth, except at the margins, which are thickly and on each side there is a nearly circular impunctured, in the interior. The middle of the pression, thickly punctured is punctured, and the elytra are striated, the spaces scutellum striae being smooth. The sexes may be distinbetween the of the tibiae of the first pair of legs and the guished by means pair, the male having on ^the inner side of femora of the hind a single erect spine, and the inner edge of the the front tibia toothed. As this insect is liable to much hind femora strongly colour, it is necessary to call attention to these variation in of structure by which the species can be definitely minute points ascertained. of this Beetle may be briefly told as follows :—

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