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Chapter IX. 



Voracity of Caterpillars, Grubs, and Maggots — continued. 



Grubs. 



We frequently hear farmers and gardeners complain- 

 ing 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 indi- 

 cate, we are far under the mark in reckoning a thou- 

 sand 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 {Tipulidce^ 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 larvae 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 for- 

 tunately not abundant in the north. We only once 

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

 shire. f 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 Dulvvich and Camberwell 



* Ririgley, /^uim. Siog. vol. iii. p. 230. f -T- R- 



o 3 



