Os NATURAL! HISTORY <OF SELIGORNE, 
1 SS SSS 
degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all our pains 
and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do 
migrate ; and are still farther embarrassed to find that some do 
not actually migrate at all. 
These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagina- 
tion, that they became productive of a composition that may 
perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the 
honour of writing to you. 
LETTER. xx, 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, Jlay 29th, 1769. 
DEAR S1R,—The scarabe@us fullo I know very well, having seen 
it in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in 
its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it might be found 
on the sea-coast.* 
* Melalontha fullo, FApricius. Chafer or cockchafer, but not the species that is so 
well known to schoolboys. ‘This species is a rare British insect, very local in its distribu- 
tion, being hitherto chiefly found in Kent; it is remarkable for the large size and deve- 
lopment of the antennz. These insects are almost all extremely destructive, feeding 
voraciously on the leaves of shrubs and trees. The common cockchafer, sometimes 
called May-bug (woodcut), often appears in immense numbers, and commits great havoc. 
On the continent they are even more destructive than in this country, and governments 
have directed their attention to the best mode of compassing their destruction. In the 
larva state they are vegetable eaters, feeding upon the roots of plants, while in the 
perfect or beetle state they attack the foliage. It is in this condition they are most easily 
destroyed ; being a large insect they can be collected by labourers or children, and in 
some parts they are so numerous that oil is extracted from them by boiling. There are 
several allusions to this insect in the ancient writers, and we are indebted to W. B. 
Macdonald of Rammerscales for selecting the following quotations— 
The myAodov6y is mentioned by Aristophanes, “‘ Clouds,” n. 761. Socrates log. :— 
pH} vur mepl cavrov eiAAE CHV yvopny aét, 
GAN arroxada Thy dbpov7is eis TOV aépa, 
AwdSetov Gotep pndoAoveny Tov Todds. 
‘€Do not now always revolve your thoughts around yourself, but set your meditation 
(give rein to your meditation) free into the air, fastened with a strong thread to its foot 
like a cockchafer.” : : 
Greek boys, without the fear of Martin’s act before their eyes, were wont thus to 
amuse themselves with cockchafers chained by a thread. Madame Dacier however 
here supposes an allusion to an opinion of Socrates that the human soul had wings. | The 
scholiast to Aristophanes remarks that it is Gwididy xpvorgov KavOapw opocov—adrdrws 
Tov xpvooKavOapor, Civay Br., 6 Tots avOcowy éerikabegerar—Acyer SE TOV XovToKdvOapov.—i.€. 
A little animal of goldish hue like a cantharus, otherwise a chrysocantharus ; in barbaric 
Greek “‘ Zina,”—which rests upon flowers—and some call it a ** golden cantharus.” 
Aristophanes in his “‘ Wasps,” 1342, calls a young glee-maiden xpvcoundodrdvitor, “a 
little golden cockchafer.” 
