30 C L E P T E R A . 



and of course would require many more of a smaller size. 

 Say that, on an a^'erage of sizes, they consumed twenty 

 apiece, these for the five make one hundred. Each of the 

 parents consume say fifty ; so that the pair and family devour 

 two hundred every day. This, in three months, amounts to 

 twenty thousand in one season. But as the grub continues 

 in that state four seasons, this single pair, with their family 

 alone, without reckoning their descendants after the first 

 year, would destroy eighty thousand grubs. Let us suppose 

 that the half, namely, forty thousand, are females, and it is 

 known that they usually lay about two hundred eggs each, 

 it will appear, that no less than eight millions have been 

 destroyed, or prevented from being hatched, by the labors of 

 a single family of jays. It is by reasoning in this way, that 

 we learn to know of what importance it is to attend to the 

 economy of nature, and to be cautious how w^e derange it by 

 our short-sighted and fotile operations." Our own country 

 abounds with insect-eating beasts and birds, and without 

 doubt the more than abundant IMelolonthas form a portion 

 of their nourishment. 



We have several Melolonthians whose injuries in the perfect 

 and grub state approach to those of the Eu- 



Fig. 10. ^ ^^ 



ropean cockchafer. Phyllophaga * quercina of 

 Knoch, the May-beetle, as it is generally 

 called here, is our common species. (Fig- 

 10.) It is of a chestnut^brown color, smooth, 

 but finely punctured, that is, covered with 

 little impressed dots, as if pricked with the 

 point of a needle ; each wing-case has two or 



* A genus proposed by me in 1826. It signifies leaf-eater. Dejean subse- 

 quently called this genus Ancylonycha.^ 



[3 The genus Phyllophaga was indeed proposed by Dr. Harris, but was not 

 accompanied by any description; it must therefore yield to the name Lachnosterna 

 of Hope, described in 1837 Burmeister has improperly adopted for the gen\is the 

 name given by Dejean, but which was not sanctioned by a description until 1845. 

 It is a very numerous genus, and many of the species resemble each other very 

 closely. — Lec] 



