CHAPTER XVI. 



BEETLE PESTS. 



BEETLES form the largest and most varied group of insects including 

 many distinctive species. As they live concealed, their larvae are 

 so seldom found that far less is known of them than, for instance, of 

 caterpillars. They are also far more difficult to distinguish specifically. 

 It is, therefore, necessary to discuss groups rather than individual 

 species. Increased knowledge will show that beetles are far more 

 destructive than is generally known; especially will this be so in the 

 (e weevils " whose larvae are almost wholly herbivorous but live lives of 

 such concealment that we are still ignorant of the life histories of our 

 commonest species. Beetle grubs are notoriously hard to rear and 

 cannot be identified until they are reared. Any observer who is so 

 fortunate as to rear one should put the facts on record, for such inquiry 

 is most needed. 



Cockchafer Beetles. 



These beetles appear in large numbers at regular seasons of the year, 



flying by night and feeding upon 

 leaves. They are round, thickset 

 insects, usually hard, not more than 

 half an inch long, and most easily 

 recognised by the peculiar knob at the 

 end of the antennae (see fig. 225). 

 Their colour is generally brown, black 

 or some sombre tint, but some are 

 very bright metallic green, others a 

 vivid red brown with white spots. All 

 have the same build, the same antennae 

 and the same heavy droning flight. 



Cockchafers are not often reported 

 as injurious insects, but do far more 

 harm than is generally known. They 

 are destructive at two periods in 

 their life below ground as the larva, 

 above ground as the imago. The 

 larva is a white grub, with large 

 brown head, a much wrinkled white body curved in a half circle and 



FIG. 225. 



Cockchafer Beetle. 



