288 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND YERMES. 



motion, and playing about over his head last. This noise was heard 

 week, on June 28th. 



" Resounds the living surface of the ground, 



Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 



To him who muses at noon. " 



' ' Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, 



Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd, 



The quivering nations sport." THOMSON'S SEASONS. 



WHITE. 



CHAFFERS. 



Cockchaffers seldom abound oftener than once in three or four years ; 

 when they swarm, they deface the trees and hedges. Whole woods of 

 oaks are stripped bare by them. 



Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house-sparrow. 



The scarabceus solstitialis first appears about June 26th : they are 

 very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a small 

 species, about half the size of the May -chaffer, and are known in some 

 parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. WHITE. 



A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or as it is called 

 here, the May-bug, scarabceus melolontha, happened this year (1800) : 



My gardener, in digging some 

 ground, found, about six inches 

 under the surface, two of these in- 

 sects alive and perfectly formed, so 

 L early as the 24th of March. When 

 he brought them to me, they ap- 

 peared to be as perfect and as much 

 alive as in the midst of summer, 

 crawling about as briskly as ever : 

 yet I saw no more of this insect 

 till the 22nd of May, when it began 

 to make its appearance. How comes 

 it, that though it was perfectly 



formed so early as the 24th March, it did not show itself above ground 

 till nearly two months afterwards 1 MARKWICK. 



PTINUS PECTIMCORNIS. 



Those maggots that make worm-holes in tables, chairs, bed-posts, 

 &c., and destroy wooden furniture, especially where there is any sap, 

 are the larvae of the ptinus pectinicornis* This insect, it is probable, 

 deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms eat their way in. 



In their holes they turn into their pupae state, and so come forth 



* These insects will attack various woods, but beech and the American black 

 birch are those soonest attacked by anobium striatwn. They are also extremely 

 prevalent in the roofing or timbers of cot-houses, constructed of British grown 

 Scotch pine, which in a few years they will almost reduce to powder. 



