sc/Exci: cu)ss//'. 



.1DJ> 



15RrnSlI COCKCHAI-'KRS. 



Itv i;. I. Hi'RGESS Sopp, I'.K.S. 



uA.vr.s \ii;i.()i.(>M'ii.\. 



T \ his interesting •' History of the ICarth and 

 ^ Animated Nature" Oliver (ioldsmith says: — 

 " ( )f the lieetle kind there are three difl'erent 

 classes, distinguished by their feelers ; " and of heetles 

 with their "feelers clavaled or Unnlihed at the end 



meant the dumlile-ilnr, oi which I wrote in a former 

 article {aiiti, p. 225), the name heing applied by the 

 older writers to the common cockchafer [Meloloiitlia 

 vulgaris), an insect whose " noxious qualities'' have 

 contributed to render it a familiar and dreaded object 

 to the agriculturist from the earliest times. To those 

 of us who have struggled with the unwieldy group of 



liRriisH Cockchafers. 



r. MttoloHtha viitgitris (female) ; 2. .)/. '.'ulgat-is (male), showing lamellae 

 of antennae e.\panded ; 3. M, r'w/far/j (lateral and ventral view); 4. M, hip/>C' 

 caj/n«/ (female) : 5. M. hi/fpocastani {m:t.\ii) ; 6. J\fiizoirogtis st^lstitialis im:}.\<i). 

 \\\ natural size. 7. Antenna of common cockchafer enlarged. 



there are ten kinds, and among these ... if 'he 

 knob be divided at the ends and tlie belly be 

 streaked with white it is no other than the Dorr or 

 Maybug. an animal the noxious qualities of which 

 give it a very distinguished rank in the history of the 

 insect creation." By the Dorr lieetle is not here 

 M.iy 1900. No. 72. Vol. VI. 



clavicomes, ol which over fifteen hundred are now 

 described as British, it is refreshing to learn that but 

 ten kinds were recognised in Goldsiuitirs time, a 

 statement well calculated to make us envious of the 

 ••good old days" that are past. His beetles with 

 •'clavated or knobbed feelers" included, moreover. 



