116 INSECTS COLEOPTERA DIAGRAM 6. 



immediately burrow into it, to pass the three years before their meta- 

 morphosis. They burrow near the surface, and eat all the roots 

 which they can find, which causes the plants to die. When it 

 begins to get cold, the grubs bury themselves deeply in the 

 ground, and become torpid till the following spring. As soon 

 as spring comes, they again mount nearer to the surface, and 

 recommence their ravages for another whole year. 



It is then that the grubs feel the time of their metamorphosis 

 approaching. They again bury themselves in the ground, deeper 

 than the first time, sometimes nearly a yard. There they excavate 

 a small ovoid chamber with very smooth sides. Then their meta- 

 morphosis takes place ; the grub becomes a soft whitish pupa, on 

 which the limbs of the perfect insect can already be discerned. 

 This pupa gradually becomes tougher, and turns brown. It 

 remains thus for the whole winter. 



When the month of February arrives, the second meta- 

 morphosis takes place ; the pupa becomes a cockchafer, but it is 

 then soft and yellowish ; and it is only gradually that it becomes 

 hard and acquires its colour. About the month of March or 

 April, according to the warmth of the season, the cockchafer 

 approaches the surface of the ground, from whence it emerges at 

 the beginning of May, when there are already leaves on the 

 trees, and then begins a new series of ravages ; it ascends the 

 trees, on which it sleeps during the daytime, but in the evening it 

 flies about, and begins to devour the leaves. In less than a fort- 

 night, the cockchafers have sometimes been known to strip entire 

 forests of all their foliage. Then the female lays her eggs ; for 

 this purpose she leaves the trees, and with her legs, which are 

 dentated, she digs a small trench, and lays her eggs there. She 

 lays from fifty to eighty eggs of a light yellow colour. Then she 

 dies ; and three years afterwards the cockchafers sprung from her 

 eggs will appear, and it is on this account that the cockchafers 

 generally appear in greatest numbers at regular intervals of 

 three years. 



Every means should be sought to deliver us from this terrible 



