160 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



The female, after impregnation, seeks free open spaces as far as 

 possible for ovi-deposition, selecting light unoccupied soil, if 

 available, into which it burrows for a depth of 2 to 4 inches, and 

 then lays up to about thirty eggs in a cluster. Similar ovi-deposi- 

 tion takes place in several places, one female being capable of 

 laying up to about seventy eggs in all ; whenever this reproductive 

 function is complete the female dies. 



About four weeks later the larvae or grubs come out from the 

 shell. During the first year they do not wander far from their 

 place of birth, but seem to nourish themselves from humus or 

 decomposing substances in the soil. When winter approaches 

 they go deeper into the soil in order to avoid the frost, but with 

 the return of spring ascend again nearer the surface, and now 

 commence feeding on the roots of plants throughout the whole of 

 the spring, summer, and autumn, after which they again hibernate 

 as grubs. In the third spring, summer, and autumn, they once more 

 repeat the process of gnawing and feeding on the roots of growing 

 plants ; and as during this third year the grubs are large and full- 

 grown, it is then that their voracity and the damage they do are 

 greatest. For the third time they hibernate as grubs, burrowing 

 deep into the soil, and when they re-ascend to the surface once 

 more in spring, they resume feeding for a short time ; but about 

 June, three years after their issue from the egg, they descend deep 

 into the soil, in order to pass through their stage of pupal rest. 

 The chrysalid metamorphosis takes place in a hollow scooped o 

 in the soil, and after a few months of pupal rest the comple 

 beetle emerges from it, being at first soft and white, but gradual! 

 hardening and deepening in colour. The beetle hibernates in th 

 soil without once coming to the surface, and does not emerge till 

 the following spring (May), when it makes its exit by means of 

 a hole resembling such an one as would be made by thrusting the 

 point of a walking-stick into the ground. 



This beetle therefore requires four years for its full normal 

 development and generation, but in southern countries, in con- 

 sequence of the greater warmth, the generation takes place in 

 three years only, so that in cold northern tracts the beetles 

 usually swarm every fourth year, whilst in the warmer south they 

 may be anticipated every third year. In the intervening years 

 there are always some of these beetles to be seen flying about, 

 but only in comparatively moderate numbers. 



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