INSECTS AND VERMES. 343 



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

 heard last 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 convolved, 



The quivering nations sport." THOMSON'S Seasons. 



CHAFERS. 



COCKCHAFERS 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. 



Chafers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house 

 sparrow. 



The Scarabceus solstitialis first appears about June 26 ; 

 they are very punctual in their coming out every year. 

 They are a small species, about half the size of the May 

 chafer, and are known in some parts by the name of the fern 

 chafer. 1 



PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. 



THOSE maggots that make worm holes in tables, chairs, 

 bedposts, &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 pupa state, and so come 

 forth winged in July ; eating their way through the valances 

 or curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to 

 obstruct their passage. 



1 A singular circumstance relative to the cockchafer, 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 insects alive and perfectly formed so early of 

 the 24th of March. When he brought them to me, they appeared 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 of March, it did not 

 show itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards ? MARK WICK 



