THE BEETLE. 



OF the Beetle are various kinds j all having cafes to their wings, 

 which are the more neceflary, as they live under the earth in holes 

 which they dig, to prevent the injuries of their real wings, which they 

 keep clean and even : they produce a buzzing noife, when rhe animal 

 flies. Bulk for bulk, thefe infers are a thoufand times ftronger than 

 man. Some beetles are not larger than the head of a pin, others as big 

 as one*s fift : fome are produced in a month, and in a fingle feafon go 

 through all the ftages of their exiftence ; others take near four years to 

 their completion, and live as winged infeds another year. 



The May-Bug, or Dorr-Beetle, has cafes of reddifli brown co- 

 lour, fprinkled with whitifh du(l, which eafily conies off. Of fome the 

 necks are covered with a red plate, others with a black. The fore legs 

 are very fhort, for burrowing in the ground, where it retreats. Is well 

 known for its evening buzz ; has been known to fwarm in fuch numbers, 

 as to eat up every vegetable production. The Jexes are diftinguilhed by 

 the fuperior length of the tufts at titc end of the horns, in the male. 

 They unite in fummer. Th^e female bores a hole in the ground, to de- 

 pofite her burthen, half a foot deep; here fiie places her eggs, one by the 

 other. They are oblong, bright yellow. She afcends from her hole, to 

 live as before, on leaves and vegetables, to buzz in the evening, and to 

 lie hid, among the branches of trees, in the heat of the day. In three 

 months the egg vivifies, the infect breaks its lliell, and a fmall grub or 

 maggot crawls forth ; it continues in the worm Hate more than three years, 

 devouring the roots of plants, and making its way under ground : they 

 grow to the iize of a walnut, being a great whitilh-yellow maggot with a 

 red head, found frequently in new turned earth, and eagerly fought after 

 by birds. The body confills of twelve fcgments or joints, on each 

 fide of which arc nine breathing holes, and three red feet. The head 

 is large, reddiih, a pincer before, and fcmicircular lip, with which it 

 Cuts the roots of plants, and fucks their moifture. it has no occafion for 

 eyes, and has none, but two feelers ferve to direit its motions. It yearly 

 changes its Hcin. 



In the fourth year, about the latter end of autumn, the grub approaches 

 its transfoimation, buries itfelf, fomctimes fix feet beneath the furface, and 



forms 



