68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all our pains 

 and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do 

 migrate ; and are still farther embarrassed to find that some do 

 not actually migrate at all. 



These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagina- 

 tion, that they became productive of a composition that may 

 perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the 

 honour of writing to you. 



LETTER XXIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, May zqth, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, The scarab&usfullo I know very well, having seen 

 it in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in 

 its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it might be found 

 on the sea-coast.* 



* Melalontha fullo, FABRICIUS. Chafer or cockchafer, but not the species that is so 

 well known to schoolboys. This species is a rare British insect, very local in its distribu- 

 tion, being hitherto chiefly found in Kent ; it is remarkable for the large size and deve- 

 lopment of the antennae. These insects are almost all extremely destructive, feeding 

 voraciously on the leaves of shrubs and trees. The common cockchafer, sometimes 

 called May-bug (woodcut), often appears in immense numbers, and commits great havoc. 

 On the continent they are even more destructive than in this country, and governments 

 have directed their attention to the best mode of compassing their destruction. In the 

 larva state they are vegetable eaters, feeding upon the roots of plants, while in the 

 perfect or beetle state they attack the foliage. It is in this condition they are most easily 

 destroyed ; being a large insect they can be collected by labourers or children, and in 

 some parts they are so numerous that oil is extracted from them by boiling. There are 

 several allusions to this insect in the ancient writers, and we are indebted to W. B. 

 Macdonald of Rammerscales for selecting the following quotations 



The jutjAoAoj'flTj is mentioned by Aristophanes, " Clouds," n. 761. Socrates loq. : 



fjiri wv ;repl cravrov etAAe GTTJV yrw/uirji/ del, 

 dAA' aTroxaSa Trjf fypovTiV eis TOV dspa, 

 uicTTrep ^rj^.o\6vOr\v TOV 7ro56s. 



"Do not now always revolve your thoughts around yourself, but set your meditation 

 (give rein to your meditation) free into the air, fastened with a strong thread to its foot 

 like a cockchafer." 



Greek boys, without the fear of Martin's act before their eyes, were wont thus to 

 amuse themselves with cockchafers chained by a thread. Madame Dacier however 

 here supposes an allusion to an opinion of Socrates that the human soul had wings. ^The 

 scholiast to Aristophanes remarks that it is u>ii(f>i.6v Xfn><n& Ka.v6dpia 6/u.oioi' aAAws 

 TOV \pv<roK(iv6apov , ivav Br., o TOIS avOfaiv eTiKaOe^erai Ae-yet 6s TOV \p\]Q~OK.av6apov. i.e. 

 A little animal of goldish hue like a cantharus, otherwise a chrysocantharus ; in barbaric 

 Greek "Zina," which rests upon flowers and some call it a "golden cantharus." 



Aristophanes in hi-s "Wasps," 1342, calls a young glee-maiden xpva-o^y]\o\6i'Qi.ov, "a 

 little srolden cockchafer." 



