378 HISTORY OF 



file farmer and his family. In Ireland they suffered so much 

 by these insects, that they came to a resolution of setting tire to 

 a wood, of some miles in extent, to prevent their mischievous 

 I ropagation.* 



• Among the mimberless species of grubs which annoy the farmer and 

 ^^ardeuer, tlie one described above is the most destructive. It is the larva 

 f the May-bug or cockchafer. It is not so common in Scotland as EuglauJ 

 and Ireland, in which latter country it is called the Connanght worm. Thu 

 mother cockchafer, says Mr Rennie in his work on Insect Transformations, 

 when about to lay her eggs, digs into the earth of a meadow or corn-field to 

 the depth of a span, and deposits them in a chister at the bottom of the ex- 

 cavation. Rose!, in order to watch their proceedings, put some females 

 into glasses half-filled with earth, covered with a tuft of grass, and a piece 

 of thin muslin. In a fortnight, he found some hundreds of eggs deposited, of 

 an oval shape and a pale yellow colour. Placing the glass in a cellar, the 

 eggs were hatched towards autumn, and the grubs increased remarkably in 

 size. In the following May they fed so voraciously that they required a 

 fresh turf every second day ; and even this proving too scanty provender, 

 he sowed in several garden pots a crop of peas, lentils, and salad, and when 

 the plants came up, he put a pair of grubs in each pot ; and in this maimer 

 he fed them through the second and third years. During this period, they 

 cast their skins three or four times, going for this purpose deeper into the 

 earth, and burrowing out a hole where they might eflect their change un. 

 disturbed ; and they do the same in winter, during which they become tor. 

 pid and do not eat. 



When the grub changes into a pupa, in the third autumn after it is 

 hatched, it digs a simikr burrow about a yard deep ; and when kept in a 

 pot, and prevented fr<.:ji going deep enough, it shows great uneasiness and 

 often dies. The perfect beetle comes forth from the pupa in January or 

 February ; but it is then as soft as it was whilst still a grub, and does not 

 acquire its hardness and colour for ten or twelve days, nor does it venture 

 above ground before May, on the fourth year from the time of its hatching. 

 At this time, the beetles may be observed issuing from their holes in the 

 evening, and dashing themselves about in the air as if blind ; hence the 

 common saying, " as blind as a beetle." 



During the three summers then of their existence in the grub state, these 

 insects do immense injury, burrowing between the turf and the soil, and 

 devouring the roots of grass and other plants ; so that the turf may easily 

 be rolled off, as if cut by a turfing spade, «-hile the soil underneath for an 

 inch or more is turned into soft mould like the bed of a garden. 



The best way of preventing the ravages of these insects would be to em- 

 ploy children to collect the perfect insects when they first appear, before 

 they lay their eggs; but when a field is once overrun with the larvae, no. 

 thing can be done with it, except paring and burning the surface, or plough, 

 ing it up, and turning in a flock of ducks or other poultry, or a drove of pigs, 

 which are said to eat these grubs, and to fatten on the fare. Drenching the 

 field with stable urine by means of reservoir carts, like those used for wa. 

 tering roads, would, if suflficiently done, both kill the grubs, and beneficially 

 manure the land. 



