COLEOPTERA. 3W» 



the name itself implies. These beetles, together with many 

 others, for which no common names exist in our language, are 

 now united in one family called melolonthad.e, or Melolon- 

 thians. The following are the general characters of these 

 insects. The body is oblong oval, convex, and generally of a 

 brownish color; the antennae are nine or more commonly ten 

 jointed, the knob is much longer in the males than in the 

 females, and consists' generally of three leaf-like pieces, some- 

 times of a greater number, which open and shut like the leaves 

 of a book; the visor is short and wide; the upper jaws are 

 furnished at base on the inner side with an oval space, crossed 

 by ridges, like a millstone, for grinding; the thorax is trans- 

 versely square, or nearly so ; the wing-cases do not cover the 

 whole of the body, the hinder exti-emity of which is exposed; 

 the legs^are rather long, the first pair armed externally with 

 two or three teeth ; and the claws are notched beneath, or are 

 split at the end like the nib of a pen. The powerful and horny 

 jaws are admirably fitted for cutting and grinding the leave.'j of 

 plants, upon which these beetles subsist; their notched or double 

 claws support them securely on the foliage ; and their strong 

 and jagged fore-legs, being formed for digging in the ground, 

 point out the place of then- transformations. 



The habits and transformations of the common cockchafer 

 of Europe have been carefully observed, and will serve to 

 exemplify those of the other insects of this family, which, as 

 far as they are known, seem to be nearly the same. This 

 insect devours the leaves of ti-ees and shrubs. Its duration in 

 the perfect state is very short, each individual living only about 

 a week, and the species entirely disappearing in the course of 

 a month. After the sexes have paired, the males perish, and 

 the females enter the earth to the depth of sLx inches or more, 

 making their way by means of the strong teeth which arm the 

 fore-legs ; here they deposit their eggs, amounting, according 

 to some ^\Titers, to nearly one hundred, or, as others assert, to 

 tw^o hundred from each female, which are abandoned by the 

 parent, who generally ascends again to the surface, and per- 

 ishes in a short time. 



