nursery of trees in the Insliiut Forestier. In the forests of Kolbetz more than a thousand measures of wild pines were destroyed in the same way. We shall not, then, be surprised to learn that the thunders of excommunication were formerly launched at the cockchafers, as they were also at the caterpillars and the locusts. We do not know whether this had much impression upon them. In 1479, ^^ cockchafers, having occasioned a famine in the country, were cited before the ecclesiastical tribunal of Lausanne. The advocate (Fribouig) who defended them, did not find, doubtless, in the resources of his eloquence arguments powerful enough in their favour; for the tribunal, after mature deliberation, condemned the accused troop, and sentenced them to be banished from the territory. But it is not enough to pass a sentence — there must also be the means of putting it in execution; and these were wanting to the tribunal of Lausanne. And so the condemned cockchafers continued to live on Swiss land, without appearing mindful of the condemnation which had been fulminated against them. The larvae of the cockchafer are not easily destroyed. They successfully resist those scourges which one fancies must harm them. Thus, the inundation which devastated the banks of the Saone, several years ago, had no effect 011 them. The land and meadows, which had remained for from four to five weeks under water, were none the more rid of them. The only circumstance which is really hurtful to them, and to the adult cockchafer, is late frost in the months of April and May. When these frosts come after mild weather, they surprise the larvse at the surface of the soil, and kill them. Unfortunately, the same causes do harm to the plants w^iich have already begun to spring up. Nature has not, then, sufficiently provided the means of destroying these mischievous beings. One would say that she had not foreseen their extraordinary multiplication, which has been, we must confess, encouraged by agriculture and by the cultivation of the land. Animals do not contribute much towards limiting the number of cockchafers, although the latter are not vvanting in natural enemies. Among msects, it is the large species of Carabus which search after the larvae as well as the adult cockchafers. The Carabus auratus attacks them with great coolness. M. Blanchard saw a carabus seize a cockchafer in the middle of the road, open its belly with its mandibles, and devour its intestines. The cockchafer tossed about from one side to the other, and even walked, while it was undergoing its cruel punishment; and the Carabus followed it without internipting

Its work. Some reptiles, many carnivorous animals, such as the shrew-mice, pole-cats, weasels, rats, and certain birds, especially the night-birds, prey upon the cockchafer and its larvae. Ravens and magpies, which are seen going from clod to clod, make savage but insufficient war against them. In fact, all these animals together do not destroy the hundredth part of the cockchafers which are born every year. As an example which will show the extent of the evil, a field of 29 acres was ploughed up into 72 furrows. At the first ploughing were gathered 300 larvae per furrow; at the second, 250; at the third, 30 more; which amounted to 600 per furrow, and to 43,200 in all. Man, who is the victim of these ravages, has been necessarily obliged to think of a means of destroying this enemy. Many infallible means have been proposed, which have, however, given no result. Prizes have been offered, but the evil has not diminished. Here are a few of the processes recommended.

Immediately after the ploughing, you must turn into the field infested by the larvse a flock of turkeys, to whom it will be a great treat to devour them, or else you must sow in the field rape-seed, very thickly, which you must then bury by a very deep ploughing, when it is as high as your hand. Colewort, it is said, kills the larvae, while it at the same time manures the soil. Or again, you must plough up the land on the approach of hard frosts, to expose the worms to the cold. Lastly, you can water the field with oil of coal, or sprinkle it with ashes of boxwood. All these are expensive. The simplest means are here the best. It is better to depend upon labour than destructive substances, whose employment always presents inconveniences. Considering the difficulties which oppose themselves to us in our search after larvae, we had better collect them in their adult state by violently shaking the branches of the trees on which they doze during the day, and then kill them in some way or other, thus destroying from twenty to forty eggs with each female. A general cockchafer hunt, rendered obligatory by law, and encouraged by prizes, would be the only efficacious means of opposing a pest which costs agriculture many millions. This means would also be less costly than the turning up of the land concealing the larvae, when it is remembered that they prefer land in full bearing.

In 1835 the General Council of La Sarthe voted a sum of 20,000 francs for a cockchafer hunt. Nearly 600,000 litres were delivered in, thanks to a prize of three centimes per litre. As a litre contains about 500 cockchafers, there were thus destroyed about 300,000,000 of them. It is true that M. Romieu, then

Prefect of La Sartlie, who was the principal promoter of this excellent measure, became food for the wit of the newspapers, and was represented dressed like a cockchafer in the Charivari. Derision and ridicule are too often the reward of useful ideas. In Switzerland were taken, in 1807, more than 150,000,000 of these insects. But these isolated measures were useless in producing a durable, result. It has been tried to make use of cockchafers in industrial arts. According to M. Farkas, they have succeeded, in Hungary, by boiling them in water, in extracting from them an oil, which is used to grease the v/heels of carriages; and, according to M. Mulsant, the blackish liquid which is contained in the oesophagus may be used for painting. But the produce arising from these industrial occupations is not considerable enough to ensure them a certain extension, which is to be regretted, for agriculture would thus be rid of one of its most formidable scourges. Poultry are sometimes fed on these insects; pigs are also very fond of them. The Melolo)itha Hippocastani differs from the common species in having black legs. The Mdolontha ful/o, twice as large as the common species, is variegated with tawny and white. It is met with on the sea-coasts, and on the downs of the north and south of France, as its larv?e feed on the roots of maritime plants.

Among the genera very near to the cockchafer we will mention the little Rhizotrogits, light-coloured and hairy, which flies in the evening in the meadows, and the Eitdilorie, or A?ioniahe^ of splendid metallic colours. The Anomala vitis is an insect of about half an inch long, of a beautiful green, bordered by yellow, with the elytra deeply furrowed. It sometimes causes extensive ravages in the vineyards. After the Cetoniadce and the Cockchafers, we come to the Scarabceidce, properly so called. The Orydes nasicornis (Fig. 435) is very common all over Europe. It is about an inch long, of a chestnut-, brown, and perfectly smooth. The male has on the head a horn, which is wanting in the female (Figs. 436, 437). Its larva, which is a great whitish worm, larger than that of the cockchafer, lives in rotten wood and in the tan which is employed in hot-houses and in garden-frames. They were to be found by hundreds in the old hot-houses of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The market-gardeners, who employ the tannin of the oak bark, have rendered this Coleopteron very common in the environs of that capital. Fig. 438 represents an exotic species, the Xylotrtipes didwtomus.

Among the true Scarahcei we meet with many species of gigantic

size, especially in America. DynasUs Hercules, a great insect of a fine ebony black, with its elytra of an olive grey, is not rare in the

Fig. 436.— Head of Oryctes nasicomis, male.

■w^ ^^^

Fig. 435. — Oryctes nasicomis, male. Fig- 437. — Head female.of Oryctes nasicomis,

Antilles. Its thorax is prolonged into a horn as long as its body, and bent round at the extremity; its head has also a long horn standing erect. The females want these appendages. Fig. 439 represents the Golofa claviger of Guiana.

The Geotrupes are insects almost as common as the chafers. As

Fig. 438. — Xylotrupes dichotomus.

their name reminds us, they make holes in the ground, which they scoop out, particularly in meadows, under cow-dung which has grown

72*

dry on the surtace. It is under the excrements of ruminating animals and horses that they must be looked for. They fly especially at night, and may be seen buzzing about on fine summer evenings in the vicinity of dung heaps.

The Geotrupes stercorarius, the Shard-born Beetle, Clock, or Dumbledor, is of a brilliant bluish black, and attains to a length of about two-thirds of an inch. We may consider this Coleopteron as a useful auxiliary of man in ridding the soil of excrementitious matter. The genus Trox, which belongs to the same group, generally inhabits sandy countries, and has its body nearly always covered with earth or dust; it lives on vegetable substances, or on

Fig- 439 — Golofa claviger,

animal matter in a state of decomposition. The habits of the genus Copris resemble those of Geotntpes; they live in excrement. The form of their clypeus, broad, rounded, without teeth, and advancing over the mouth, suffices to distinguish the kindred species. In the environs of Pans and in England the Copris hmaris is found. Tht-larvae of these msects form a cocoon composed of earth and dung before transforming themselves into pupae; this cocoon is more or less round, and acquu'es a great hardness.

The species of the genus Ateuchiis collect portions of excrement which they make up into balls, and roll till they are as perfectly rounded as pills, in which they lay their eggs. This habit has gained for these insects the name of pill-makers. Their hind legs seem to be particularly adapted for this operation, for they are very long and somewhat distant from the other legs, which gives to the

459 COLEOPTRRA.

Fig. 440.— Scarabaeus (Golofa) Porteri.

Ateuchi a strange appearance, and makes it hard work for them to walk. They walk backwards and often fall head over heels. They are generally seen on declivities exposed to the greatest heat of

the sun, assembled together to the number of four or five, occupied in rolling the same ball; so that it is impossible to know which is the real proprietor of this rolling object. They seem not to know themselves; for they roll indifferently the first ball which they meet with or near which they are placed. '

The Ateuchi are large flat insects, with a broad-toothed clypeus; they all belong to the Ancient Continent. The type of the genus is t\QAteuchus sacer (Fig. 442), the Sacred Scarabseus of the Egyptians. This msect is black, and attains to a length of a little less than an inch. It is to be found commonly enough in the south of France, in

Page 73 of 88