COLEOPTEEA. 



451 



the time necessary to ensure the propagation of the species. 

 The number of eggs which a female lays is from twenty to 

 thirty. With her front legs she hollows out a hole in the ground 

 from two to four inches in depth, and deposits her eggs, of 

 a yellowish white and of the size of hemp-seed, therein. Her 

 instinct leads her to choose soft, light, and well-manured soils, 

 which are, at the same time, the best ventilated and the most 

 fertile. We may conclude from this that cultivation and labour 

 have made the cockchafer more common than it was formerly. 



Fig, -133. Larva of the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris). 



It is the child of civilisation, the parasite of agriculture. 

 In from four to six weeks after being laid, the little larvae are 

 hatched (Fig. 433), and immediately attack the roots of vege- 

 tables. They have a hard and horny head, and slender black legs, 

 longer than in other species of Scarabceides. Their body is com- 

 posed of a whitish pulp under a transparent skin, the head and 



Fig. 434. Pupa of the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris). 



the mouth have a reddish tinge. The length of their existence 

 in this state is three, sometimes four years. From the egg laid 

 in the month of June is hatched a larva in the month of July. 

 It increases in size during the last six months of the year, and 



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