, 7 6 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



when they are fully grown. In many parts of the Continent where cockchafers 

 particularly abound in certain years, such abundance recurs only after a period 

 of four years, although on the Rhine and in Switzerland the recurrences take 

 place at intervals of three years. With the enemies of the cockchafer, which is 

 preyed upon underground by moles and shrew-mice and above by crows and bats, 

 may be associated man, who not only destroys them because of the damage they 

 inflict, but who has discovered in both beetles and larvae a valuable food for pigs 

 and poultry. ^Moreover, these beetles yield, for those who like it, a nourishing 

 soup, very like that prepared from crabs. A relation of the cockchafer (PolyphyUa 

 fullo), 1 to I4 inches long, blackish brown in colour, and speckled with numerous 

 pale spots, does great damage in the sand-hill districts of Germany and France in 

 its larval stage, especially to the roots of sand-grass. In some districts it is 

 occasionally, in others more frequently, injurious to trees. 



The golden chafer or rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata) is found on roses and other 



MALE AND FEMALE GLOW-WORMP. 



flowers, and frequently also in bushes on the fringe of woods, and in gardens. 



It is just under an inch in length, golden green or black in colour above, and bright 



coppery below, the head and throat being punctured, but the scutellum smooth ; 



the elytra being sinuated on the sides and marked by chalky waved cross-lines. 



The larva dwells in ant-hills, in hollow trees, or in tan. 



_ Another group belonging' to the section with five-jointed feet 



Glow-Worm. s> 1 ^ & j 



are the so-called soft beetles (Malacodermata), typified by the 

 continental glow-worm (Lampyri,s splendidula), a flat brown beetle, about half 

 an inch in length, having on each side of the thorax a transparent crescent, 

 and the female showing a good deal of ashy white on her body. The glow- 

 worm common in Britain is L. noctiluca, which is fuscous in colour in both sexes 

 the elytra of the male having three elevated lines with the interstices roughly 

 punctured, and the terminal segment of the abdomen being yellowish below, while 

 the abdomen of the female has a dorsal ridge. Both species are distinguished by 

 the phosphorescent shining of the three terminal segments. Like their larvae. 



