376 HISTORY OF 



with two feelers, which, like the crutch of a blind man, serve to 

 direct its motion. Such is the form of this animal, that lives 

 for years in the worm state under ground, still voracious, and 

 every year changing its skin. 



It is not till the end of the fourth year, that this extraordinary 

 insect prepares to emerge from its subterraneous abode, and 

 even this is not effected, but by a tedious preparation. About 

 the latter end of autumn, the grub begins to perceive the ap- 

 proach of its transformation ; it then buries itself deeper and 

 deeper in the earth, sometimes six feet beneath the surface, and 

 there forms itself a capacious apartment, the walls of which it 

 renders very smooth and shining by the excretions of its body. 

 Its abode being thus formed, it begins, soon after, to shorten 

 itself, to swell, and to burst its last skin, in order to assume the 

 form of a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, appears of a yellow- 

 ish colour, which heightens by degrees, till at last it is seen 

 nearly red. Its exterior form plainly discovers all the vestiges 

 of the future winged insect, all the fore-parts being distinctly 

 seen ; while behind, the animal seems as if wrapped in swad- 

 dling clothes. 



The young May-bug continues in this state for about three 

 months longer ; and it is not till the beginning of January, that 

 the aurelia divests itself of all its impediments, and becomes a 

 winged insect, completely formed. Yet still the animal is far 

 from attaining its natural strength, health, and appetite. It un- 

 dergoes a kind of infant imbecility ; and, unlike most other in- 

 sects, that the instant they become flies are arrived at their state 

 of full perfection, the May-bug contiinies feeble and sickly. Its 

 colour is much brighter than in the perfect animal, all its parts 

 are soft, and its voracious nature seems, for a while, to have en- 

 tirely forsaken it. As the animal is very often found in this 

 state, it is supposed, by those unacquainted with its real history, 

 that the old ones, of the former season, have buried themselves 

 for the winter, in order to revisit the sun the ensuing sum- 

 mer. But the fact is, the old one never survives the season, 

 but dies, like all the other winged tribe of insects, from the se- 

 verity of cold in winter. 



About the latter end of May, these insects, after having lived 

 for four years under ground, burst from the earth, when the first 

 mild evening invites them abro^id. Thev are at that time seen 



