436 THE INSECT WORLD. 
who tells us that this unfortunate insect shared with the cockchafer 
the privilege of amusing children. The Cetonia flies by day and 
by night, making use of its inferior wings without opening the 
elytra (Fig. 422). When seized, it pours out from the extremity 
of its abdomen a feetid liquid, the only means of defence the poor 





Fig 422.—Rose Beetle (Cetonia aurata). 
insect possesses. The larva (Fig. 423) much resembles the larva 
of the cockchafers, but the legs are shorter. It is found in rotten 
wood, and often in ants’ nests. When it has acquired its full 
development it makes a cocoon of an oval form (Fig. 423), in which 

Fig. 423.—Larva and cocoon of the Rose Beetle. 
it transforms itself into a pupa; the cocoon is composed of bits 
of wood agglomerated with a silky matter which the larva 
secretes. 
The larva of the Cetonia splendidula, which is the most mag- 
nificent found in France, is met with sometimes in the nests of wild 
bees. In Russia the rose beetle is considered a very efficacious 
remedy for hydrophobia. In the governorship of Saratow, which 
is traversed by the Volga, hydrophobia is very frequent on account 
of the heats which reign during the whole summer in its arid 
steppes. The inhabitants, incessantly exposed to be bitten by mad 
