COCKCHAFERS 



CHAFERS AND CLOCKS 



THE humming of the midsummer cockchafers round the 

 garden trees marks for human ears and eyes the high-water 

 mark of the beetles' year. Other beetles are signals of 

 well-marked seasons. The first lush April growth brings 

 the big black oil-beetles climbing on the hedge-banks ; warm 

 July nights would not be complete without the light of 

 the glow-worm, nor August and September evenings with- 

 out the dor-beetle's heavy drone. The multitudinous effer- 

 vescence of summer in the oak woods that sound which 

 almost more than any other tells of the fullness of life owes 

 much of its volume to the myriad minute beetles which 

 rustle their wings and scrape their wing-cases as they creep 

 and fly. But the June cockchafer is one of the largest and 

 most gregarious of its order, and fitly stands for the type 

 of its kind. The smaller July chafer is often more abundant, 

 but its inferior size goes against it in popular esteem. It 

 appears a month or six weeks too late, and has the effect 

 of an anticlimax. The larger cockchafer is also well known 

 in its larval stage to every countryman, though not so many 

 know the connection between them. The fat subterranean 

 grub of the cockchafer shares the name and the reputation 



