BEETLES. 165 



days, little whitish grubs, each provided with six legs 

 near the head, and a mouth furnished with strong 

 jaws. When in a state of rest, these grubs usually 

 curl themselves in the shape of a crescent. They 

 subsist on the tender roots of various plants, commit- 

 ting ravages among these vegetable substances on some 

 occasions of the most deplorable kind, so as totally to 

 disappoint the best-founded hopes of the husband- 

 man. During the summer they live under the thin 

 coat of vegetable mould near the surface, but as 

 winter approaches they descend below the reach of 

 frost, and remain torpid until the succeeding spring, 

 at which time they change their skins, and reascend 

 to the surface for food. At the close of their third 

 summer (or as some say of their fourth or fifth), they 

 cease eating, and penetrate about two feet deep into 

 the earth ; there each grub by its motions from side to 

 side forms an oval cavity, which is lined by some 

 glutinous substance thrown from its mouth. In this 

 cavity it is changed to a pupa by casting off its skin. 

 In this state the legs, antennae, and wing-cases of the 

 future beetle are visible through the transparent skin 

 which envelops them, but appear of a yellowish-white 

 colour, and thus the pupa remains till February, 

 when the thin film which encloses the body is rent, 

 and three months afterwards the perfected beetle digs 

 its way to the surface, from which it finally emerges 

 during the night. According to Kirby and Spence, 

 the grubs of the cockchafer sometimes destroy whole 

 acres of grass by feeding on its roots. They under- 

 mine the richest meadows, and so loosen the turf that 

 it will roll up as if cut by a tnrfing-spade. They do 



