BEETLE. 
25 
were driven into the river Severn, that they totally 
prevented the mills from working, and were with 
difficulty extirpated by the united efforts of the 
people, and the various kinds of hawks, ducks, and 
other birds, which preyed upon them with avidity. 
In Normandy, according to the same author, they 
generally make their appearance every third year. 
In our own island the county of Norfolk seems 
occasionally to have suffered most from the ra- 
vages of the Cockchaffer. In the year 1751 in 
particular many crops are said to have been de- 
stroyed by it. 
The larva or caterpillar of this-insect is said to 
be two, and sometimes three years, in passing 
from its first form into that of the perfect insect. 
The eggs are laid in small detached heaps beneath 
the surface of some clod, and the young, when 
first hatched, are scarcely more than the eighth of 
an inch in length, gradually advancing in their 
growth, and occasionally shifting their skins, till 
they arrive at the length of near two inches. At 
this period they begin to prepare for their change 
into a chrysalis or pupa, selecting for the purpose 
some small clod of earth, in which they form an 
oval cavit}^, and, after a certain space, divest 
themselves of their last skin, and immediately ap- 
pear in the chrysalis form, in which they con- 
tinue till the succeeding summer, when the Beetle 
emerges from its retirement, and commits its de- 
predations on the leaves of trees, &c. breeds, 
and deposits its eggs in a favourable situation, 
after which its life is of very short duration. 
