RAVAGERS OF CROPS 251 



cocoon under the loose bark. From this cocoon 

 the perfect moth emerges in about a fortnight, or 

 in the following spring, according to whether 

 there are one or two broods in the course of 

 the season. In England the moth appears to be 

 single-brooded, but in France and the greater 

 part of the United States of America it is double- 

 brooded. Apparently it is the second broods that 

 are chiefly the means of spreading this pest from 

 one country to another, for these larvae are 

 frequently still within the apparently good apples 

 when gathered and packed. The larvae on emerg- 

 ing will spin their cocoons in any convenient 

 crack or cranny of the barrel or packing-case, 

 or wherever the apples have been stored, and 

 in due course the perfect moths will emerge to 

 spread the infestation over new ground. 



The Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), although 

 an all too familiar insect in our country lanes 

 during the months of May and June, is not quite 

 such a serious foe to the British farmer as it 

 is to our friends on the Continent, where vast 

 swarms periodically make their appearance, and 

 strip the entire foliage from the trees. Never- 

 theless, in England, it is an insidious foe, always 

 present in certain numbers, working throughout 

 its comparatively long larval life beneath the 

 surface of the ground at the roots of trees and 

 various crops, while in the adult stage it devours 

 the foliage. The large, brownish, handsome 

 Cockchafer beetle, with its beautiful, almost fan- 

 shaped antennae, is too familiar an object to need 

 a detailed description, but the larva, leading a 

 subterranean life, is probably not so generally 



