336 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND YEEMES. 



The scardbceus solstitialis first appears about June 26th : 

 they are very punctual in their coming out every year. They 

 are a small species, about half the size of a May-chaffer, and 

 are known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. 



WHITE. 



A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or, as 

 it is called here, the May-bug (scarab&us melolontha), hap- 

 pened this year (1800) : My gardener, in digging some 

 ground, found, about six inches under the surface, two of 

 these insects alive and perfectly formed, so early as the 24th 

 of March. When he brought them to me, they appeared to 

 be as perfect and as much alive as in the midst of summer, 

 crawling about as briskly as ever : yet I saw no more of this 

 insect till the 22nd of May, when it began to make its 

 appearance. How comes it, that though it was perfectly 

 formed so early as the 24th of March,* it did not show 

 itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards ? 



MARKWICK. 



PTINTTS PECTINICORNIS. Those maggots that make worm- 

 holes in tables, chairs, bed-posts, &c., and destroy wooden 

 furniture, especially where there is any sap, are the larvce 

 of the ptinus pectinicornis. This insect, it is probable, 

 deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms eat then- 

 way in. 



In their holes, they turn into their pupcs state, and so 

 come forth winged in July : eating their way through the 



state, but when they have arrived at maturity, for I have frequently observed 

 them in search of them on trees and hedges. Mr. White recommends that a 

 rook should be shot weekly the year through, and its crop examined in order 

 to discover whether upon the whole they do more harm or good, from the con- 

 tents at various periods. Though his experiment might show that these birds 

 occasionally injure corn and turnips, yet their continual consumption of grubs, 

 and wire-worms, and other noxious insects would greatly preponderate in their 

 favour. In fact, I believe rooks to be great friends to the farmer, and it is to 

 be regretted that they are often so wantonly destroyed. ED. 



* I have often observed this fact, and also ascertained that the perfectly 

 formed chaffer never comes forth till the leaves are on the trees, which they 

 are not so early as the 24th of March. This is an interesting fact, and shows 

 how kindly Providence has instilled even into insects the means of self- 

 preservation. ED. 



