150 HISTORY OF 



reddish colour, with a pincer before, and a semi- 

 circular lip, with which it cuts the roots of plants, 

 and sucks out their moisture. As this insect lives 

 entirely under ground, it has no occasion for eyes, 

 and accordingly it is found to have none ; but is 

 furnished with two feelers, which, like the crutch 

 of a blind man, serves to direct its motions. Such 

 is the form of this animal, that lives for years in 

 the worm state under ground, still voracious, and 

 every year changing its skin. 



It is not till the end of the fourth year that 

 this extraordinary insect prepares to emerge from 

 its subterraneous abode, and even this is not ef- 

 fected but by a tedious preparation. About the 

 latter end of autumn, the grub begins to perceive 

 the approach of its transformation ; it then buries 

 itself deeper and deeper in the earth, sometimes 

 six feet beneath the surface, and there forms itself 

 a capacious apartment, the walls of which it ren- 

 ders very smooth and shining, by the excretions 

 of its body. Its abode being thus formed, it be- 

 gins soon after to shorten itself, to swell, and to 

 burst its last skin, in order to assume the form of 

 a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, appears of a 

 yellowish colour, which heightens by degrees, till 

 at last it is seen nearly red. Its exterior form 

 plainly discovers all the vestiges of the future 

 winged insect, all the fore parts being distinctly 

 seen, while behind the animal seems as if wrapped 

 in swaddling clothes. 



The young May-bug continues in this state for 

 about three months longer, and it is not till the 

 beginning of January that the aurelia divests itself 



