318 Observations on Insects affecting the Tiirnij) Crops. 



in the sunshine, and after consuming the flowers in one spot they 

 can readily fly to another for the same purpose. This handsome 

 beetle naturally belonsfs to the Order Coleoptera and the 

 Family Melolontiiid.e, and is called Scarabaeus by Linnaeus, 

 but it now bears the designation of 



11. Cetonia aurata, or the Green Rose-chafer : it is of a bril- 

 liant metallic green, often having a golden or copper hue; the 

 head is oblong, notched in front, and thickly punctured ; the 

 eyes are prominent ; the horns short and ten-jointed, terminated 

 by an oval club formed of three plates ; the thorax is large, punc- 

 tured, somewhat triangular or semi-ovate, the sides rounded, the 

 base indented ; the sides of the trunk have a spine on each side, 

 which is very visible even when viewed from above ; the scutellum 

 is large and elongate-trigonate ; the elytra are oblong, the 

 shoulders project, with a scale on each side of their base, and 

 hollowed out where the spines are ; they are punctured ; the suture 

 is keeled, especially towards the apex, which is truncated, and 

 leaves the extremity of the abdomen exposed ; there are various 

 spots upon the elytra more or less of a pure white or ochraceous 

 colour, forming transverse but irregular streaks towards the hinder 

 part, as if the surface was cracked : the wings are very long, rusty 

 yellow, with horny ferruginous nervures, and are folded beneath 

 the elytra, excepting in flight ; the under side is coppery, inclining 

 to rose-colour ; the face, thorax, and breast are clothed with 

 soft ochraceous down, the latter with a metallic knob projecting 

 between the base of the two intermediate thio^hs; the leofs are 

 Strong, anterior the shortest ; the shanks are ciliated with ochra- 

 ceous hairs on the inside, the anterior are notched externally, 

 forming three teeth, the others have a tooth outside, about the 

 middle ; they are all furnished with a pair of spines at the apex 

 called spurs, excepting the anterior, which have only one ; the 

 feet are rather long, slender, and slightly compressed, composed 

 of five joints, the terminal one being the longest, and producing a 

 pair of strong claws:* length from 8 lines to more than | of an 

 inch (fig. 33). 



These beetles not only attack the flowers of the strawberries 

 and turnips, but they may be found nestling among the petals 

 and stamina of the white-thorns, mountain ash, elder, roses, lilac, 

 candytuft, peony, &c. The female, like the cockchafer (Melo- 

 lontha vulgar is), ■\ deposits her eggs in the ground, where they 

 hatch and produce little maggots, which live two or three years 

 underground, feeding upon the roots of grass and various plants 

 until they are full grown, when they are as thick as a swan's quill 

 and an inch and a half long, fat and whitish, with an ochraceous 



Curtis's i?rU. Ent, pi and fol. ^li. t Ibid, fol. 406. 



