NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



55 



LETTEE XXIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOEXE, May 29tfi, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, The scarabceus fullo I know very well, having seen it 

 in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in its 

 natural state. Mr. Banks told me 

 he thought it might be found on the 

 seacoast.* 



On the thirteenth of April I 

 went to the sheep-down, where the 

 ring-ousels have been observed to 

 make their appearance at spring and 

 fall, in their way perhaps to the 

 north or south ; and was much 

 pleased to see these birds about the 

 usual spot. We shot a cock and a 

 hen ; they were plump and in high 

 condition. The hen had but very 

 small rudiments of eggs within her, 



COCKCHAFER. 



* Melalontha fullo, FABRICIUS. Chafer or cock-chafer, but not the species that is 

 so well known co schoolboys. This species is a rare British insect, very local in its 

 distribution, being hitherto chiefly found in Kent ; it is remarkable for the large size 

 and development of the antennae. These insects are almost all extremely destruc- 

 tive, feeding voraciously on the leaves of shrubs and trees. The common cockchafer, 

 sometimes called May bug (woodcut), often appears in immense numbers, and 

 commits great havoc. On the continent they are even more destructive than in 

 this country, and governments have directed their attention to the best mode 

 of compassing their destruction. In the larva state they are vegetable eaters, 

 feeding upon the roots of plants, while in the perfect or beetle state they attack 

 the foliage. It is in this condition they are most easily destroyed ; being a large 

 insect they can be collected by labourers or children, and in some parts they are 

 so numerous that oil is extracted from them by boiling. There are several allusions 

 to this insect in the ancient writers, and we are indebted to W. B. Macdonald of 

 Rammerscales for selecting the' following quotations 



Jrfti is mentioned by Aristophanes, " Clouds," n. 761. Socrates loq, . 



" Do not now always revolve your thoughts around yourself, but set your medi- 

 tation (give rein to your meditation) free into the air, fastened with a strong thread 

 to its foot like a cockchafer. " 



Greek boys, without the fear of Martin's act before their eyes, were wont thus 

 to amuse themselves with cockchafers chained by a thread. Madame Dacier 

 however here supposes an allusion to an opinion of Socrates that the^ human soul 

 had wings. The scholiast to Aristophanes remarks that it is 5>t!'<p<ov ^va-i^ov 

 r.avtia^a ofAoiov XAws rov ^tva-ontx.f6a.^ov, ^inav Br., o Tols civtilffiv lTizct8<Z,tTa,i bi'/li 

 Si rev x$v<r6>t.v$.%ov. i.e. A little animal of goldish hue like a cantharus, otherwise 

 a chrysocantharus ; in barbaric Greek ".Zina," which rests upon flowers and 

 some call it a " golden cantharus." 



Aristophanes in his "Wasps," 1342, calls a young glee-maiden 

 "a little golden cock-chafer." 



