44 FOREST ENTOMOLOGY. 



following up the frass at the bottom of a decayed standing tree, 

 which betrayed the presence of males and females. My first dis- 

 covery of this sort was in Acklington, Northumberland, July 3, 1902. 

 Mr R S. Bagnall pointed out to me that the sickly beech and holly 

 trees in Gibside, Co. Durham, were very much injured by this species. 

 The beetle is shining black, about half an inch long. The male 

 has a conspicuous hooked horn in front of the head. The female has 

 also a slight horn, but it may require the aid of the lens to see it. 



Family SCARAB.SID^. 



Genus Melolontha. 



This is exclusively an arboreal genus, inasmuch as it only contains 

 two species, both of which are arboreal in their habits. Fowler gives 

 the following specific characters viz. : 



"Two species of Melolontha are found in Britain; they may be 

 distinguished as follows : 



" I. Pygidium elongate in both sexes, and gradually narrowed to 



apex ; average size larger . . . M. vulgaris, F. 



" IT. Pygidium shorter, constricted at base, and very slightly widened 



at apex ; average size smaller . . M. Mppocastani, F." 



The chief distinguishing character of the genus is in the structure 



of the antennae, which are clubbed, and the club has seven lamellae in 



the male and six in the female. 



Melolontha vulgaris, Fab. (Cockchafer). 



The cockchafer, otherwise known in this country as the May bug 

 or May beetle, in Germany as the Maikafer, and in France as Le 

 Hanneion, is injurious both in the perfect and larval forms. The full- 

 grown beetle feeds on the leaves of oak, elm, sycamore, and other 

 trees, and the larvae on the roots of grasses and young trees. In the 

 midland and southern counties of England the seedlings in nursery- 

 lines often are destroyed by the larvae (fig. 45). 



Its life -history, as given by all English entomologists, may be 

 briefly told. The eggs are deposited by the female insect during the 

 summer, underneath the ground, from six to nine inches below the 

 surface. About thirty or forty are said to be deposited by a single 

 insect. They hatch out in about six weeks, and during the first year 



