THE ENEMIES OF ENGLISH WOODLANDS 283 



the latter, for the pine weevil is not a great flier, and does 

 not trouble to go farther than necessary. In fact, methods 

 of prevention in the case of this, as with all forest insects, 

 must usually be combined with expediency in relation to 

 something else, and are rarely adopted as preventive 

 measures pure and simple. 



THE COCKCHAFER. 



On sandy soils the grub of the common cockchafer often 

 proves a serious enemy to nurseries and young plantations 

 in England. Barely, if ever, however, does it occur in such 

 numbers as on the Continent. In France and Germany 

 immense numbers of this beetle often appear in May and 

 June, and attack deciduous trees, such as beech or oak, and 

 strip them entirely bare of foliage. In England the occur- 

 rence of the chafer is on a much more limited scale, and it is 

 seldom that more than two or three dozen beetles are seen 

 in one spot. Climatic conditions are probably less favourable 

 to the speedy development of the grubs into beetles, and 

 their natural enemies have thus greater chances of dealing 

 with them. 



The life-history of the cockchafer, according to Ormerod 

 and others, is as follows : The mature beetles emerge in 

 May, and for two or three weeks feed on foliage and other 

 growth. During this period pairing and oviposition take 

 place, and the female beetle lays her eggs in clusters on the 

 ground on bare soil, if possible. The resulting larvse feed 

 very little the first season, and large numbers are prob- 

 ably destroyed by moles, birds, and insectivorous creatures 

 generally. The larvae descend deeper into the ground in 

 autumn and lie dormant during the winter. In spring 

 they again become active, ascend near the surface, and fe^d 

 on a large scale until the third year, when they pupate, 

 and the last winter is passed as a mature beetle under the 

 surface. 



The most favourable time for attacking this insect is in 

 the two or three years in which it exists in the larval stage. 

 In ground cultivated annually the grubs are frequently 



