52 I.AMELUCORNIA.' [Meloloiitha. 



poisonous substances, and if merely dislodged for the time would soon 

 return again; hand-picking or beating is occasionally of service, as the 

 beetles are easily captured on warm days, as they are very sluggish and 

 cling beneath the leaves; on one occasion, referred to by Miss Ormerod 

 (Manual of Injurious Insects, page 208) eighty bushels of the beetle 

 were collected on one farm; birds and pigs, however, are the great 

 enemies of the insect, rooks and sea-gulls especially devouring them 

 with eagerness both in the larval and perfect state; these birds therefore 

 should be always encouraged ; rooks are often credited with pulling up 

 plants or corn, but if each separate case were examined, it would be 

 found that they destroyed little if anything beyond the infested plant, 

 which would in any case have died, and left the larva free to attack 

 others; the pest in all probability might be much diminished by ploughing 

 the land, turning in pigs and poultry and encouraging the rooks, &c., and 

 then going over it with a heavy roller, which would destroy the remainder 

 that had escaped. 



Two species of Melolontha are found in Britain ; they may be dis- 

 tinguished as follows : 



I. Pygidium elongate in both sexes and gradually narrowed 



to apex ; average size larger M. TIILGABIS, F. 



II. Pygidium shorter, constricted at base and very slightly 



widened at apex ; average size smaller M. HIPPOCASTANI, F. 



Bf. vulg-aris, F. Oblong, moderately convex, but somewhat de- 

 pressed on disc ; head black with clypeus reddish in front, anterior 

 niajxin raised, with rather long yellowish pubescence at sides, antennae 

 10 jointed, reddish-testaceous; thorax transverse, black, or occasionally 

 reddish, rounded at sides and narrowed in front, posterior angles pro- 

 jecting, strongly and not very closely punctured on disc, more thickly 

 at sides, pubescent; scutellum large, almost semicircular, sparingly 

 punctured, black ; elytra ferruginous or reddish-testaceous, finely 

 pubescent, with four raised lines on each, almost alutaceous, the sculp- 

 ture being shallow and consisting of large and small punctures inter- 

 mingled and more or less running into one another ; under-side clothed 

 with greyish or yellowish pubescence, which is much longer on the front 

 part than on the abdomen ; legs reddish-testaceous. L. 22-26 mm. 



Mala with the thorax villose at sides, and the antennae terminated by 

 a club consisting of seven lamellae, which is longer than the funiculus ; 

 the third joint of the antennae is somewhat dilated at apex, and bears a 

 small setigerous tubercle. 



Female with the thorax simply pubescent, and the antennae terminated 

 by a club consisting of six lamellae, which is shorter than the funiculus. 



About trees, Ac. ; flying at dusk ; common and generally distributed from the 

 midland districts soul li wauls, but gradually becoming less common further north. 

 Liverpool district, by no moms abundant (Ellis) ; Scotland, local, Solway, Clyde, 

 Forth, Tay and Argyle distiicts; Ireland, generally distributed, and common in the 

 oath. 



