66 DR. HARRIS'S REPORT. April, 



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 six 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 writers, to nearly 

 100, or, as others assert, to 200 from each female, which are aban- 

 doned by the parent, who generally ascends again to the surface, 

 and perishes in a short time. 



From the eggs are hatched, by the warmth of the earth, 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 tiiemselves in the shape of a crescent. They sub- 

 sist on the roots of trees and other plants, found in the ground, com- 

 mitting ravages among these vegetable substances, on some occasions 

 of the most deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint the best found- 

 ed hopes of the agriculturalist. During the summer they live under 

 the thin coat of vegetable mould near the surface, but, as winter ap- 

 proaches, 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 mo- 

 tions from side to side, the grub forms an oval cavity, which is lined 

 by some glutinous substance, in which it is changed to a pupa by 

 casting its last larva skin. In this state, the legs, antennae, and wing 

 cases are visible through the transparent skin which envelopes them, 

 but appear of a yellowish white color ; and thus it remains until the 

 approach of the vernal season, when the thin film which encloses the 

 body is rent, and the perfect insect digs its way to the surface, from 

 which it finally emerges during the night. According to Kirby and 

 Spence, the grubs of the cock-chafFer 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 also the roots of 

 wheat and of other grains. About seventy years ago, a farmer near 

 Norwich, in England, suffered much by them, and, with his man, 



