214 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



MELOLONTHA FULLO. 



PLATE XV. FIG. 3 and 4. 

 Scarabaeus Fullo, Linn Donovans Brit. Jntectt, \v p 



The genus Melolontha,* of which the common 

 Cockchafer affords a familiar example, has anten- 

 nae consisting of ten joints, with five or seven of the 

 uppermost produced into thin leaflets in the male, 

 while in the females only four (sometimes six) are 

 a little produced. All the claws are of equal size, 

 and terminate in a simple point, with a small tooth 

 on the under side near the base. As constituted 

 by the older Entomologists, it formed a very exten- 

 sive genus ; but in its present restricted acceptation, 

 it scarcely includes more than a dozen species. Of 

 these, by far the most common is M. vulgaris (com- 

 mon Cockchafer), which occurs abundantly in many 

 parts of England, Ireland, and the Continent, but is 

 comparatively rare in Scotland.f The perfect insect 



* The term is derived from ^*jXi, an apple-tree, and 

 av^tris-, a flowering or inflorescence, because the insects it an- 

 ciently denoted, either were supposed to be produced from 

 the flowers of fruit-trees, or were accustomed to resort to 

 them for food. 



f The common cockchafer sometimes abounds in Dum- 

 friesshire : many hundreds of the grubs were turned up 

 while digging the foundation of the Mansion-house of 

 Jardine Hall ED. 



