COLEOPTERA. 453 
industrial occupations is not considerable enough to ensure them 
a certain extension, which is to be regretted, for agriculture 
would thus be rid of one of its most formidable scourges. Poultry 
are sometimes fed on these insects; pigs are also very fond of 
them. 
The Melolontha Hippocastani differs from the common species 
in having black legs. The Melolontha fullo, twice as large as the 
common species, is variegated with tawny and white. It is met 
with on the sea-coasts, and on the downs of the north and south 
of France ; as its larvee feed on the roots of maritime plants. 
Among the genera very near to the cockchafer we will mention 
the little Rhizotrogus , light coloured and hairy, which flies in the 
evening in the meadows, and the Kuchloras, or Anomalas, of 
splendid metallic colours. The Axomala vitis is an insect of 
about half an inch long, of a beautiful green, bordered by yellow, 
with the elytra deeply furrowed. It sometimes causes extensive 
ravages in the vineyards. 
After the Cetoniade and the Cockchafers, we come to the Scara- 
Ss 

Fig. 435.—Head of Oryctes nasicornis, 
mule. 

Fig. 434.—Oryctes nasicornis, male. Fig. 436.—Head of Oryctes nasicornis, 
female. 
beide, properly so called. The Oryctes nasicornis (Fig. 434) is 
very common all over Europe. It is about an inch long, of a 
chestnut-brown, and perfectly smooth. The male has on the head 
‘a horn, which is wanting in the female (Fig. 436). Its larva, 
which is a great whitish worm, larger than that of the cockchafer, 
lives in rotten wood and in the tan which is employed in hot- 
houses and in garden-frames. They were to be found by hundreds 
in the old hothouses of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The 
