30 HALF HOURS WITH ESTSECTS. LPackard. 



During the latter part of May and early in Juno iu New 

 England, namely, for about a month, the beetle flies about at 

 night, being most active in warm, damp weather, especially 

 before thunder storms, a period when most insects are 

 restless. 



By day our beetle in its sober garb of chestnut-brown hides 

 in the foliage of trees, especially the apple, clinging to tlic 

 under side of the leaves by its long curved claws, which are 

 admirably adapted for the purpose. During winter the grub 

 descends below the reach of frost, and at the approach of 

 warm spring weather wriggles up towards the surface. 



The European Cockchafer has much the same habits as 

 our May-chafer, and when we say that in 18G6 the grubs of 

 the Cockchafer destroyed in the department of the lower 

 Seine over $5,000,000 worth of garden vegetables, we fear 

 we are prophesying a state of things that may ensue in 

 America when our population becomes as densely crowded 

 as in the old countries of Europe. 



M. Rciset (see "American Naturalist," vol. ii, 209) says 

 that this insect is three 3'ears in arriving at its perfect beetle 

 state. The larva3 (grubs) hatched from eggs laid by the 

 beetles which appcai'cd in 18G5 passed a second winter, that 

 of 1867, at a mean depth in the soil of nearly a foot and a 

 half. The thermometer placed in the ground (which was 

 covered with snow) at this mean depth never rose to the 

 zero point (or 32° Fahr.) of the Centigrade thermometer, as 

 minimum. Thus the larvje survived after being perfectly 

 frozen (probably most subterranean larvce are thus frozen 

 and thawed out in the spring). "In June, 18G7, the grubs 

 having become full-fed, made their way upwards to a mean 

 distance of about thirteen inches below the surface, where, 

 in less than two months, they all changed to the pupa state, 

 and in October and November the perfect beetle appeared. 

 * * * * The immature larvjB, warned by the approaching 

 cold, began to migrate deep down in the soil in October, 



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