2/2 TRAiVSFOKMATIO.VS OF lA'SECTS. 



appear in the month of April, but the greatest numbers fly in the 

 month of May ; towards the end of June they are almost all gone. 

 They eat the leaves of many trees — such as the oak, the beeches, 

 the maples, and the poplars, and sometimes the elms. Occa- 

 sionally the trees are completely spoiled and killed by the May 

 bags. They are almost nocturnal in their habits ; they dislike the 

 sunshine, and seek the shade during the day under the branches 

 of bushy trees. They wake up in the morning, and are moderately 

 lively then ; but during the evening they are particularly active, 

 and fly here and there, making a sonorous buzzing noise. They 

 are heavy and very clumsy in their flight, as most of us know, for 

 when we are walking out in the warm spring evenings there is 

 often some difficulty in escaping these dull and stupid-looking 

 beetles ; in fact, they prefer banging against everything, rather 

 than guiding themselves away from obstacles which are hard 

 enough to do them injury. 



The May bugs do much mischief when they are beetles, but 

 the ravages they commit in the larva state are of most serious 

 consequence to agriculturalists. The female beetles dig into 

 decaying matter, or light soils, and hide themselves whilst they 

 lay about forty eggs. The larvae are hatched at the end of four or 

 five weeks, and by this time the tender vegetation of early summer 

 is progressing rapidly. Then these white worms or cockchafer 

 grubs, as they are often called, find themselves surrounded by 

 abundance of food, and, unfortunately, of that kind which is very 

 precious to man. They do not eat the leaves, but the delicate 

 roots which come in their way as they crawl underground ; and 

 thus a vast number of plants is destroyed. The larvs grow very 

 slowly, and do not undergo any metamorphosis until their third 

 year; and then they are transformed into nymphs during the 

 months of March or April. Some weeks afterwards the beetles 

 escape and fly. The long duration of their growth and evolution 

 explains how it is that these beetles usually visit us in great 

 numbers every third year ; but it would appear that unusual heat, 

 or seasons of great cold, have something to do with the accelera- 

 tion or retardation of their development. It is not uncommon for 

 larvae to undergo their metamorphosis towards the end of their 

 second year, when the summer has been unusually hot ; but even 



