520 SUPPLEMENT 



roid. The union being ended, the male no more resumes 

 his pristine vigour. He remains in a languishing state, takes 

 no more nutriment, and perishes soon after. The female 

 survives and lays her eggs. 



As soon as the females are fecundated, they dig in the 

 earth, with the assistance of their fore feet, a hole, half a 

 foot in depth, in which they deposit their eggs, one by the 

 side of the other. The oviposition being finished, they quit 

 the hole, abandon the eggs, and return on the trees. They 

 survive this operation but a little time, take scarcely any nu- 

 triment, and perish after having languished one or two 

 days. 



The larvae which spi'ing from these eggs at the end of 

 about six weeks are soft, elongated, of a dirty white, ap- 

 proaching to yellow, and wrinkled ; the posterior extremity 

 of their body is curved underneath, and the excrements with 

 which it is filled give it a violet or ashen colour. They have 

 six short and scaly feet, a head thick and scaly, two antennae 

 composed of five pieces, and nine stigmata on each side. As 

 yet they have no eyes, or at least those which they are to 

 have are concealed under the envelops of which the larva is 

 to disembarrass itself by small degrees. Their body is com- 

 posed of thirteen rings, tolerably apparent. These larvae, 

 pretty generally known by the name of white worms, live 

 three or four years in their first state, subsequently change 

 into the nymph, and appear at the commencement of the 

 third or fourth year, under the perfect form of the melolon- 

 tha, or cock-chafer. 



These larvae are attached to the roots of plants and trees, 

 which constitute their only nutriment. They do not eat, 

 except during the fine weather. In autumn they bury them- 

 selves very deeply in the earth, and pass the winter in a state 

 of lethargy 1 without taking any kind of nourishment, and 



