454 ^^-^ INSECT WORLD. 



nursery of trees in the Instihit 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, the cockchafers 

 having occasioned a famine in the country, were cited before the 

 ecclesiastical tribunal of Lausanne. The advocate (Fribourg) vfho 

 defended them, did not find, doubtlessly, 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 w^hich devastated the banks of the Saone, fifteen 

 years ago, had no effect on 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 I 

 and May, When these frosts come after mild weather, they surprise 

 the larv^ at the surface of the soil, and kill them. Unfortunately, 

 the same causes do harm to the plants which 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 I 

 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 wanting in natural enemies. 

 Among insects, it is the large species of Carabus which search after 

 the larvae as well as the adult cockchafers. The Carabus aurahis 

 attacks them with great coolness. M, Blanchard saw a carabus seize 

 a cockchafer in the middle of the road, open its belly with its man- 

 dibles, 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 interrupting 



