216 



Melolonthid.«.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-BlPIIYLLOCERA. 



Family— ANOPLOGNATHID^. 



These are Australian and Brazilian insects, in -whicli 

 the clypcus conceals the mouth, and the masillse have 

 an obtuse lobe. The antenna; are similar, or nearly so, 

 in both sexes. Anoplognathus is the tj'pical genus; 

 some of them Iiave a curious yellow and green tinsel- 

 like lustre. Calloodes Grayianus is a very fine insect 

 described by the writer, and 

 named out of gratitude to Dr. 

 John Edward Gray, the able 

 keeper of the zoological depart- 

 ment in the British Museum. 

 It is figured on Plate 1, fig. 4, 

 Epklidijsus Lamprimoules is 

 from King George's Sound. 

 Geniates and Lcucothjreus are 

 two genera with many Brazilian 

 species. Fig. 88 represents the 



EpididysusLamprimoides. JJ^«c;<2/*-ten»S, or Epididysus 



Lamprimoides, a fine insect of a yellowish metallic 

 green, with tlie thorax and body beneath downy. 



Family— MELOLONTHID^. 



In this truly leaf-cating family the antenna in the 

 different sexes vary much ; the plates of these organs 

 in the males being at times very large, as in Pohjphylla 

 Fullo, a common European, but very rare and only 

 occasional British species. The species, as in Encya 

 and PlioUdotus, are often covered witli scales, while 

 others of a Sontli African genus are very hairy. In this 

 family the maxillae are toothed. 



Our common Cockchafer [Melolontha vulgaris) is 

 a well-known example. It is thoroughly crepuscular, 

 resting on trees during the day. At times they abound 

 and are very destructive to foliage. The larvae feed 

 on the roots of grass, and continue in the grub state 

 several years. At times these chafers become quite a 

 plague. The cuts, copied from Katzeburg, show the 

 male of this beetle, with its curved larva and the pupa 

 — fig. 89. Below the larva is a figure of the antenna 



Fig.S9. 



a Melolontha vulgaris, h Larva, c Pupa, d Antetiua of male. 

 e Profile of the ahdomen. 



of a male, with the plates extended. Below the pupa 

 you see a profile view of the pointed abdomen. There 

 are four families — Rutdidce, Melolontlildiv, Sericidm, 

 and HopUdo'. The cuts are of the genera Scrlca and 

 AuisopUa — figs. 90 and 91. 



The Hoplia group is very extensive. Many of them 

 are African. Ccraspis is a pretty Brazilian genus, with 

 a heart-shaped soutellum. 



Fig. 90. 



FiK.91. 



Serica binmia. 



Anisoplia agricola. 



Diphuccplwla is Australian and a metallic-coloured 

 genus ; Pyronota, a brilliant New Zealand genus, also 

 highly metallic on the surface. 



The cuts show the forms of the curious genus 

 Biphyllocera, as I named it in Captain Grey's Nar- 

 rative. Fig. 92, a, represents the male, and b the 

 female, of Biphyllocera Kirhyana, named by the writer 

 after the venerable author of the " Introduction." 



Biphyllocera Kirhyana— a, male; ft, female. 



Diphyllocera is the only genus of lamellicorn beetles 

 that I know, which has compound lamellated anten- 

 antennje. It is indigenous to Iving George's Sound, 

 Western Australia. 



Th(? Mdolontlddcc and other destructive insects are 

 much kept in check by birds, which, especially when 

 young, are chiefly fed on insect food. A cautious ob- 

 server found a nest of young jays; he noticed that each 

 of the five jays, while yet very young, consumed at 

 least fifteen of these full-sized grubs in one day, and of 

 course would require many more of a smaller size. Say 

 that on an average of sizes they consumed twenty a 

 piece, these for the five make one hundred. Each of the 

 parents consume, say fifty; so that the pair and family 

 devour two hundred every day. This in three months 

 amounts to twenty thousand in one season. But as the 

 gi-ub continues in that state four seasons, this single 

 pair, with their family alone, without reckoning their 

 descendants after the first year, would destroy eighty 

 thousand grubs.* An American species of Beetle, of 

 the same family, and called there the May-beetle 

 • Anderson's Kecreations. 



