COLEOPTEEA. 449 



IVTiat contributes still more to render the flight of these insects 

 heavy and sustained for only a short time together, is that they 

 are obliged to inflate themselves like balloons in order to rise 

 into the air. It is a peculiarity which they share with the migra- 

 tory locust. Before taking its flight, the cockchafer agitates its 

 wings for some minutes, and inflates its abdomen with air. The 

 French children, who perceive this manoauvre, say then that the 

 cockchafer " compte ses ecus " (is counting its money), and they 

 sing to it this refrain, which has been handed down for many 

 generations : 



" Hanneton, vole, vole, 

 Va-t'en a 1'e'cole." 



A variation which we hear in the western provinces of France 

 is the following : 



" Barbot, vole, vole, vole, 



Ton pere est a 1'ecole 

 Qui m'a dit, si tu ne voles, 



II te coupera la gorge 

 Avec un grand couteau de Saint-George." 



During the day the cockchafers remain under the leaves in a state 

 of perfect immobility ; for the heat which gives activity to other 

 insects, seems, on the contrary, to stupefy them, and it is during the 

 night only that they devour the leaves of elms, poplars, oaks, 

 beech, birch trees, &c. In years when their number is not 

 very great, one hardly perceives the damage done by them ; but 

 at certain periods they appear in innumerable legions, and then 

 whole parts of gardens or woods are stripped of their verdure, 

 and present, in the middle of the summer, the appearance of a 

 winter landscape. The trees thus stripped do not in general die ; 

 but they recover their former vigour with difficulty, and, in the 

 case of orchard trees, remain one or two years without bearing 

 fruit. It is principally the trees skirting woods, and situated 

 along cultivated fields, which are exposed to the ravages of the 

 cockchafer, because the larvae of these insects are developed in the 

 fields. In the interior of forests they are never met with in great 

 numbers. 



In certain years cockchafers multiply in such a frightful manner 

 that they devastate the whole vegetation of a country. In the 



G G 



