SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



we come to compare the proportion of brain to 

 body we find that whereas in the worker bee it is 

 ] to 17"), in the cockchafer it amounts to but I in 

 3,500 (Clodd). The only consolation we can offer 

 the May-bug is that ii is in the convolutions rather 

 than in the volume of brain wherein the true 

 measure of capacity lies. 



The uses in one form or another to which cook- 

 chafers after death have been put are numerous 

 and varied, but in no way do they suffice to act as 

 a set-off to the mischief occasioned by them during 

 life. They form an excellent food for pigs, game, 

 and poultry, all of which are exceedingly fond of 

 them. By boiling them in water, Hungarians have 

 succeeded in extracting an oil which has been 

 largely used as a grease for carriage wheels 

 (Farkas) ; whilst, in addition to their contributing 

 to the' manufacture of a useful artists' colour 

 (Mulsant), Lesser (1. ii. 173) claims that they form 

 an infallible panacea both for the bite of a mad 

 dog and an attack of the plague. 



Our two species of Melolontha are very similar 

 in appearance, but may be separated as follows ; 

 whilst, if knowing the locality whence one's speci- 

 mens come, the coleopterist will often find it of 

 material service in naming his captures. 



Melolontha vulgaris is a large oblong chafer, 

 measuring from an inch to an inch and an eighth 

 in length. The head and thorax are usually black, 

 although the latter not infrequently partakes of a 

 rich dark brown coloration, a hue also exhibited 

 in a more constant and brighter tint in the clypeus 

 and antennae. Both the head and thorax are covered- 

 with long yellowish hairs extending in unrubbed 

 specimens over the whole surface of the insect, but 

 on the elytra and exposed dorsal portions of the 

 abdomen it is both whiter and shorter than on the 

 thorax. The antennae are 10-jointed, and the 

 scutellum is large, black, and conspicuous. The 

 general ground-colour of the elytra is reddish- 

 brown, but the close white pubescence with which 

 freshly emerged beetles are thickly " dusted " 

 gives them a warm grey appearance. Each elytron 

 bears four slightly raised longitudinal lines which 

 in rubbed specimens often stand out with great 

 distinctness. The under side of the cockchafer is 

 also covered with whitish pubescence becoming 

 thicker and yellower towards the anterior portion 

 of the abdomen and thorax. One of the most con- 

 spicuous features of the genus is the prolongation 

 of the last dorsal segment of the abdomen, or 

 pygidium, into a broadly elongated point, gradually 

 narrowing to the apex, giving to the chafers a 

 somewhat curious appearance. Another charac- 

 teristic is the series of triangular white marks so 

 much in evidence when the insects are viewed 

 sideways. The sexes are easily distinguished. In 

 the male the sides of the thorax are closely covered 

 with long erect hairs, and the club of the antenna 

 is longer than the whole of the remaining joints ; 

 whereas in the female the pubescence on the thorax 



is of a inure downy nature, and the blub is plainly 

 shorter than the remainder of the antenna. In 

 shape the clubs also differ in themselves, as in 

 the male cockchafer they are composed of seven 

 lamellae or leaves, and in the female of only six. 

 These numbers will at once serve to separate the 

 true Melolonthae from the closely allied genus 

 h'liizotrogus, or "summer chafer," in which the 

 club of the antenna is composed of but three 

 similar leaf-like processes. 



M. vulgaris is common and generally dis- 

 tributed over the greater part of England and 

 Wales, although it becomes decidedly scarcer 

 towards the north, and everywhere varies con- 

 siderably in abundance during a sequence of years. 

 In Scotland it occurs locally in several districts, 

 and is present in many parts of Ireland, more 

 especially in the South, where in some seasons it 

 occurs in considerable profusion. 



Melolontha hippocastani differs from our last- 

 described beetle in being both darker and smaller, 

 rarely attaining to more than an inch in length. 

 The thorax is generally red or reddish-brown, and 

 the pygidium less elongate and slightly more 

 broadened at the apex, which gives it the appear- 

 ance of being more abruptly truncated than in 

 M. vulgaris. The scutellum, too, is often red. 

 The insect is closely pubescent all over, the 

 pubescence being thicker, shorter, and of slightly 

 finer texture than in the preceding species. In 

 the male " the. third joint of the antennae is 

 thickened at the apex and armed in front with a 

 sharp tooth, and in the female the first lamella of 

 the club is shorter than the remainder " (Fowler, 

 " Col. Brit. Islands," vol. iv. p. 53). Figuier men- 

 tions (" Insect World," p. 456) that one of the chief 

 points of difference between our two species of 

 Melolontha lies in the fact that M. hippocastani 

 has black legs, but this is undoubtedly an error ; 

 for though, as also with the antennae, the examina- 

 tion of a series will show that they run evidently 

 darker than in our commoner cockchafer, yet the 

 colour cannot be said to depart from some shade of 

 dark brown. 



M. hippocastani usually appears slightly earlier 

 in the spring than does M. vulgaris, to which beetle, 

 in both the larva and imago forms, it is very 

 closely allied in habits. It is always a local insect 

 in Britain, and in England does not appear to have 

 occurred south of Westmorland and Durham. It- 

 has been recorded from the Dublin district, and 

 probably occurs in other Irish localities, whilst in 

 Scotland it has been taken in the " Clyde, Forth, 

 Tay, and Moray districts," and appears " partly to 

 take the place of the preceding species " (Fowler). 

 Bhizotrogus solstitialis, the "summer chafer," 

 differs from the typical cockchafers in not having 

 the abdomen produced to anything like the same 

 extent as in the Melolonthae ; by having only nine 

 in lieu of ten joints to the antennae ; and, as be- 

 fore stated, by having but threa lamellae in the 



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