45 6 THE INSECT WORLD. 



Prefect of La Sarthe, who was the principal promoter of this ex- 

 cellent measure, became food for the wit of the newspapers, and 

 was represented dressed like a cockchafer in the Charivari. Deri- 

 sion and ridicule are too often the reward of useful ideas. In 

 Switzerland were taken, in 1807, more than 150,000,000 of these 

 insects. But these isolated measures were useless in producing a 

 durable result. 



It has been tried to make use of cockchafers in industrial arts. 

 According to M. Farkas, they have succeeded, in Hungary, by boiling 

 them in water, in extracting from them an oil, which is used to grease 

 the wheels of carriages ; and, according to M. Mulsant, the blackish 

 liquid which is contained in the oesophagus may be used for painting. 

 But the produce arising from these industrial occupations is not con- 

 siderable enough to ensure them a certain extension, which is to be 

 regretted, for agriculture would thus be rid of one of its most formidable 

 scourges. Poultry are sometimes fed on these insects ; pigs are also 

 very fond of them. 



The Melolontha Hippocastani differs from the common species in 

 having black legs. The Melolontha fullo, twice as large as the 

 common species, is variegated with tawny and white. It is met with 

 on the sea-coasts, and on the downs of the north and south of 

 France, as its larvas feed on the roots of maritime plants. 



Among the genera very near to the cockchafer we will mention 

 the little Rhizotrogus, light-coloured and hairy, which flies in the 

 evening in the meadows, and the Euchloras, or Anowalas, of splendid 

 metallic colours. The Anomala vitis is an insect of about half an 

 inch long, of a beautiful green, bordered by yellow, with the elytra 

 deeply furrowed. It sometimes causes extensive ravages in the 

 vineyards. 



After the Cetoniada and the Cockchafers, we come to the Scara- 

 bceidce, properly so called. The Oryctes nasicornis (Fig. 435) is very 

 common all over Europe. It is about an inch long, of a chestnut- 

 brown, and perfectly smooth. The male has on the head a horn, 

 which is wanting in the female (Figs. 436, 437). Its larva, which is a 

 great whitish worm, larger than that of the cockchafer, lives in rotten 

 wood and in the tan which is employed in hot-houses and in garden- 

 frames. They were to be found by hundreds in the old hot-houses of 

 the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The market-gardeners, who employ 

 the tannin of the oak bark, have rendered this Coleopteron very 

 common in the environs of that capital. Fig. 438 represents an 

 exotic species, the Xylotiupes dichotomus. 



Among the true Scarabai vve y meet with many species of gigantic 



