542 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



quently returns, even after it becomes a winged 

 insect capable of flying. 



Beside the difference which results from the 

 shape and colour of these animals, the size 

 also makes a considerable one; some beetles 

 being not larger than the head of a pin, while 

 others, such as the elephant beetle, are as big 

 as one's fist. But the greatest difference 

 among them is, that some are produced in a 

 month, and in a single season go through all 

 the stages of their existence ; while others 

 take near four years to their production, 

 and live as winged insects a year more. 

 To give the history of all these animals, 

 that are bred prelty much in the same 

 way, would be insipid and endless ; it will 

 suffice to select one or two from the number, 

 the origin of which may serve as specimens 

 of the rest. I will, therefore, offer the history 

 of the May-bug to the reader's attention ; pre- 

 mising that most other beetles, though not so 

 long lived, are bred in the same manner. 



The May-bug, or dorr-beetle, as some call 

 it, has, like all the rest, a pair of cases to its 

 wings, which are of a reddish brown colour, 

 sprinkled with a whitish dust, which easily 

 comes off. In some years their necks are seen 

 covered with a red plate, and in others with a 

 black ; these, however, are distinct sorts, and 

 their difference is by no means accidental. 

 The fore-legs are very short, and the better 

 calculated lor burrowing in the ground, where 

 this insect makes its retreat. It is well 

 known, for its evening buzz, to children ; but 

 still more formidably introduced to the ac- 

 quaintance of husbandmen and gardeners; for, 

 in some seasons, it has been found to swarm in 

 such numbers as to eat up every vegetable 

 production. 



The two sexes in the May-bug are easily 

 distinguished from each other, by the superior 

 length of the tufts, at the end of the horns, in 

 the male. They begin to copulate in summer ; 

 and at that season they are seen joined toge- 

 ther a considerable time. The female being 

 impregnated, quickly falls to boring a hole 

 into the ground where to deposit her burden. 

 This is generally about half a foot deep, and 

 in it she places her eggs, which are of an ob- 

 long shape, with great regularity, one by the 

 other. They are of a bright yellow colour, 

 and no way wrapped up in a common covering, 

 as some have imagined. When the female 

 is lightened of her burden she again ascends 

 from her hole, to live as before upon leaves 

 and vegetables, to buzz in the summer evening, 

 and to lie hid among the branches of trees in 

 the heat of the day. 



In about three months after these eggs have 

 been thus deposited in the earth, the contained 

 insect begins to break its shell, and a small 

 grub or maggot crawls forth, and feeds upon 



the roots of whatever vegetable it happens to 

 be nearest. 



All substances of this kind seem equally 

 grateful, yet it is probable the mother insect 

 has a choice among what kind of vegetables 

 she shall deposit her young. In this manner 

 these voracious creatures continue in the worm 

 state, for more than three years, devouring the 

 roots of every plant they approach, and mak- 

 ing their way under ground, in quest of food, 

 with great dispatch and facility. At length 

 they grow to above the size of a walnut, being 

 a great thick white maggot with a red head, 

 which is seen most frequently in new-turned 

 earth, and which is so eagerly sought after by 

 birds of every species. When largest, they 

 are found an inch and a half long, of a whitish 

 yellow colour, with a body consisting of twelve 

 segments or joints, on each side of which there 

 are nine breathing-holes, and three red feet. 

 The head is large in proportion to the body, 

 of a reddish colour, with a pincer before, and 

 a semi-circular lip, with which it cuts the 

 roots of plants, and sucks out their moisture. 

 As this insect lives entirely under ground, it 

 has no occasion for eyes, and accordingly it is 

 found to have none ; but is furnished with two 

 feelers, which, like the crutch of a blind man, 

 serve to direct its motion. Such is the form 

 of this animal, that lives for years in the worm 

 state under ground, still voracious, and every 

 year changing its skin. 



It is not till the end of the fourth year, that 

 this extraordinary insect prepares to emerge 

 from its subterraneous abode, and even this is 

 not effected but by a tedious preparation. 

 About the latter end of autumn, the grub be- 

 gins to perceive the approach of its transforma- 

 tion; it then buries itself deeper and deeper 

 in the earth, sometimes six feet beneath the 

 surface, and there forms itself a capacious 

 apartment, the walls of which it renders very 

 smooth and shining by the excretions of its 

 body, its abode being thus formed, it begins, 

 soon after, to shorten itself, to swell, and to 

 burst its last skin, in order to assume the form 

 of a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, ap- 

 pears of a yellowish colour, which heightens 

 by degrees, till at last it is seen nearly red. 

 Its exterior form plainly discovers all the ves- 

 tiges of the future winged insect, all the fore- 

 parts being distinctly seen; while behind, the 

 animal seerns as if wrapped in swaddling 

 clothes. 



The young May-bug continues in this state 

 for about three months longer ; and it is not 

 till the beginning of January, that the aurelia 

 divests itself of all its impediments, and be- 

 comes a winged insect, completely formed. 

 Yet still the animal is far from attaining its 

 natural strength, health and appetite. It un- 

 dergoes a kind of infant imbecility; und, un- 



