464 OBSERVATIONS ON 



" Resounds the living surface of the ground, 

 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 



To him who muses at noon." 



" Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, 



Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved, 



The quivering nations sport." THOMSON'S SEASONS. 



CHAFERS. 



COCKCHAFERS seldom abound oftener than once in 

 three or four years ; when they swarm they deface the 

 trees and hedges. Whole woods of oaks are stripped 

 bare by them. 



Chafers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the 

 house sparrow. 



The Scarabceus sohtitialis first appears about June 

 26: they are very punctual in their coming out every 

 year. They are a small species, about half the size of 

 the May chafer, and are known in some parts by the 

 name of the fern chafer 4 . 



PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. 



THOSE maggots that make worm holes in tables, chairs, 

 bedposts, &c., and destroy wooden furniture, especially 

 where there is any sap, are the larvae of the Ptinus pec- 

 tinicornis. This insect, it is probable, deposits its eggs 

 on the surface, and the worms eat their way in. 



In their holes they turn into their pupa state, and so 

 come forth winged in July; eating their way through 

 the valances or curtains of a bed, or any other furniture 

 that happens to obstruct their passage. 



4 A singular circumstance relative to the cockchafer, or, as it is called 

 here, the May-bug, Scarabteus Melolontka, happened this year (1800): 

 My gardener in digging some ground found, about six inches under the 

 surface, two of these insects alive and perfectly formed so early as the 

 24th of March. When he brought them to me, they appeared to be as 

 perfect and as much alive as in the midst of summer, crawling about as 

 briskly as ever : yet I saw no more of this insect till the 22nd of May, 

 when it began to make its appearance. How comes it, that though it 

 was perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March, it did not show itself 

 above ground till nearly two months afterwards ? MARKWICK. 



