242 THE OPEN COUNTRY 



summer-Chafer. Among the beetles with complex antennae furnished with fan- 



etc - like leaves at the extremities, we may first mention, as a typical 



insect of the fields, the summer-chafer {Rhizotrogus solstitialis), which feeds on the 

 buds of young poplar-plantations. In length it is about three-quarters of an inch, 

 pale rufous in colour, and covered with down : along the yellowish elytra there are 

 pure whitish lines, while the thorax and abdomen are more or less black. This 

 chafer is common in hedges and on elms, and, like others of its kind, flies about 

 in the evening on meadows and sandy grass-plots. The dor-beetle (Geotrypes 

 stercorarius) fives on droppings, beneath which it bores holes in the ground for the 

 reception of its eggs. It is oblong-oval in shape, of a brilliant violet-black or steel- 

 blue colour, with a smooth thorax and little furrows and dots on the elytra. This 

 species, which is about an inch long, is generally covered with reddish parasites, 

 and is a common insect of the meadows as well as of the fields. 



As a well-known member of another family (Biqjrestidce), mention may be 



DOR-BEETLES AT HOME. 



made of the small Traehys minuta, which is not above an eighth of an inch long, 

 and short, flat, and very broad in the body. It is black with blue reflections, downy, 

 striated on each side of the thorax and elytra, and marked with four narrow waved 

 whitish bands. This beetle deposits its eggs in May, and can five through 

 the winter. 



cuck-Beeties The click-beetles ( Elaterida >, many of whose larvae are known as 



and wirewonns. wireworms, are recognised by the spiny protuberance at the hinder 

 angles of the shield on the thorax. Their six-legged, thread-like, hard-skinned 

 larvae five principally on vegetable matter or on other larvae. A common species 

 oi this group (Lacon murinus), found in spring in meadows and gardens, is 

 brownish black, covered with white and light brown down, and having reddish 

 brown antennae and feet : its length is half an inch. The larva feeds on chicory, bites 

 off the stems of rosebuds close to the bud, and bores through lettuces below the 

 ground. Another wireworm-beetle {Agriotes lineatus) is found almost everywhere, 

 especially in spring. It is about a third of an inch long, and of a greyish brown 



