Chapter IX. 



Voracity of Caterpillars, Grubs, and Maggots; — continued- 



Grubs. 



We frequently hear farmers and gardeners com- 

 plaining that their produce is destroyed by ' the 

 grub;' they might with equal propriety accuse 

 ' the bird' when their ripe seeds are devoured 

 by sparrows, chaffinches, linnets, and other seed- 

 eaters. Instead of one sort of grub, as the expression 

 seems to indicate, we are far under the mark in 

 reckoning a thousand species indigenous to Britain, 

 each peculiar in its food and its manners. We shall, 

 however, adhere as nearly as possible to the terms in 

 common use; but as the larvae of the crane-flies 

 {TipuUdcc^ Leach), being without legs, cannot be 

 accurately ranked with the legged grubs of beetles, 

 we shall consider them as maggots, though they are 

 usually termed grubs by the farmers. 



The most destructive, perhaps, of the creatures 

 usually called grubs, are the larvee of the may-bug 

 or cockchafer {Melolontha vulgaris), but too well 

 known, particularly in the southern and midland 

 districts of England, as well as in Ireland, where 

 the grub is called the Connaught worm;* but fortu- 

 nately not abundant in the north. We only once 

 met with the cockchafer in Scotland, at Sorn, in Ayr- 

 shire,! Even in the perfect state, this insect is not 

 a little destructive to the leaves of both forest and 

 fruit trees. In 1823, we remember to have observed 

 almost all the trees about Dulwich and Camberwell 



* Bingley, Anim. Biog. vol. iii, p. 2.S0. t J. R. 



