RAVAGES OF THE COCKCHAFER LARVA. 123 



larva prepares to seize its prey; in a moment, 

 swifter than the eye can follow, the victim is 

 caught by the apparatus we have described, and 

 in another instant, is in all the agonies of a violent 

 death in the mouth of the larva. So exceedingly 

 cautious are these larvae in their movements, and 

 so expert and active in darting upon their prey, 

 that it scarcely ever escapes their power. 



Having mentioned these particulars about car- 

 nivorous larvae, let us consider some circumstances 

 connected with those larvae that are vegetable 

 feeders graminivorous or herbivorous. Of these, 

 we could scarcely select a more destructive one 

 than the larva of an insect well known to every 

 schoolboy from the times of Greece and Rome 

 down to our own the common cockchafer, (melo- 

 lontha mdgaris.} Our schoolboys, however, are less 



Cockchafer. Larva. 



merciful than those of Greece, for they only tied a 

 string round the leg of the unhappy cockchafer, 



