24 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



From the eggs are hatched, in the space of fourteen days, 

 little whitish grubs, each provided with six legs near the head, 

 and a mouth furnished with strong jaws. When in a state of 

 rest, these grubs usually curl themselves in the shape of a 

 crescent. They subsist on the tender roots of various plants, 

 committing ravages among these vegetable substances, on some 

 occasions of the most deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint 

 the best founded hopes of the husbandman. During the summer 

 they live under the thin coat of vegetable mould near the sur- 

 face, but, as winter approaches, they descend below the reach 

 of frost, and remain torpid until the succeeding spring, at which 

 time they change their skins, and reascend to the surface for 

 food. At the close of their third summer (or, as some say, of 

 the fourth or fifth), they cease eating, and penetrate about two 

 feet deep into the earth ; there, by its motions from side to side, 

 each grub forms an oval cavity, which is lined by some glutin- 

 ous substance thrown from its mouth. In this cavity it is 

 changed to a pupa by casting off its skin. In this state, the 

 legs, antennae, and wing-cases of the future beetle are visible 

 through the transparent skin which envelopes them, but appear 

 of a yellowish-white color ; and thus it remains until the month 

 of February, when the thin film which encloses the body is 

 rent, and three months aftenvards the perfected beetle digs its 

 way to the surface, from which it finally emerges during the 

 night. According to Kirby and Spence, the grubs of the cock- 

 chafer sometimes destroy whole acres of grass by feeding on 

 its roots. They undermine the richest meadows, and so loosen 

 the turf that it will roll up as if cut by a turfing spade. They 

 do not confine themselves to grass, but eat the roots of wheat, 

 of other grains, and also those of young trees. About seventy 

 years ago, a farmer near Norwich, in England, suffered much 

 by them, and, with his man, gathered eighty bushels of the 

 beetles. In the year 1785 many provinces in France were so 

 ravaged by them, that a premium was offered by government 

 for the best mode of destroying them. The Society of Arts in 

 London, during many years, held forth a premium for the best 

 account of this insect, and the means of checking its ravages, 

 but without having produced one successful claimant. 



