THE COCKCHAFER. 25 



LIFE -HI STORY. 



The female beetle deposits her eggs in May or June in the 

 soil some six or seven inches below the surface. The number 

 varies from twenty-five to fifty, and in a month or six weeks the 

 thick, fleshy, white or yellowish-white larvae hatch out. During 

 the first year they are not particularly harmful, and as the winter 

 approaches they make their way into the deeper layers of the soil ; 

 in the following year, with the return of spring, they make their 

 way up close to the surface, and there commence to be exceedingly 

 destructive, feeding upon the roots of various plants. In August 

 or September of the third =ummer they become full-fed, and, 



A Photograph of Chionanpi* salicis (L.), on 

 the Willow, has inadvertently been used to illustrate 

 Aspidiotus otitreaeformis (The Oyster-Shell Bark Louse). 



FIG. X. THE OVSTER-SHELL BARK LOUSE. 



making their way to some two or more feet below the surface, they 

 change into pupae. The pupal stage extends over some eight or 

 nine weeks, the perfect beetles appearing towards the end of 

 October or at the commencement of November, and at once hiber- 

 nate. Early in the following spring they come out again, and 

 often do considerable damage to oak and elm trees, on whose leaves 

 they feed. 



Much good can be effected by gathering the beetles and 

 destroying them. The efficiency of such a method of suppressing 

 this pest is well illustrated by some figures given by M. J. Bernard 



