354 



SCIENCE- GOSSIF. 



the Lamellicornes, to the sub-family Scarabaeidae 

 Melolonthini of which division belong the cock- 

 chafers. The group is essentially a tropical one, and 

 is but poorly represented in temperate regions. 

 Rather over two hundred species inhabit Europe, of 

 which seven beetles, constituting five genera, are 

 indigenous to the British Islands ; and of these, two 

 only can be said to be in any measure generally dis- 

 tributed throughout a large portion of the kingdom. 

 Of the Melolonthae, or true cockchafers, some thirty 

 species are known, and these are widely scattered 

 over the face of the globe. Two only occur in 

 Britain, although until within recent yea,rs the 

 beetles comprised in the closely allied genus Rhizo- 

 trogiis were generally included with them. Under 

 the older Fabrician arrangement our single repre- 

 sentative of the Sericae and the more beautiful albeit 

 more distantly related chafer Anomala frischi were 

 also added to the list. 



The Melolonthidae are mentioned by Aristophanes, 

 who likens a young glee-maiden to " a little golden 

 cockchafer''; as well as by Herodes, Pollux, and 

 other ancient writers. With regard to the former, it 

 is not improbable he referred to one of the Rutelinae 

 or Cetoniinae rather than to a member of the genus 

 Melolontha as we now know it ; for it is certain that 

 some of the brighter of the species allied to the 

 rose-chafers were in earlier times sometimes spoken 

 of as "golden" cockchafers. Greek children were 

 wont to amuse themselves by tying a string to the 

 leg of a cockchafer and causing it to fly, reference to 

 which practice is made by Socrates, who says : *' Do 

 not always revolve your thoughts around yourself, 

 but let your meditation free into the air, fastened 

 with a strong thread to its leg, like a cockchafer." 

 This amusement is not, I believe, altogether unknown 

 to the youth of France at the present day. 



Although we in England have occasionally had to 

 deprecate the ravages caused by these destructive 

 insects, the damage wrought in our islands is 

 infinitesimal when compared wit?i the havoc occa- 

 sioned by them on the continent of Europe. In 

 Germany, France, Switzerland, and other countries 

 they sometimes swarm in incredible numbers, often 

 laying waste large tracts of land by their depreda- 

 tions. In Britain they have appeared a few times in 

 considerable quantities, and even in ordinary years 

 are responsible for sufficient damage to have moved 

 our Board of Agriculture to issue and distribute free 

 a leaflet (No. 25) suggesting methods for their 

 destruction. Mouffet, whose Natural History was 

 the first printed in this country, tells us that in 

 February, 1574, cockchafers appeared in vast num- 

 bers in many parts of England, and that the number 

 which fell into the Severn alone was sufficient to 

 stop some of the water-mills on that river. Mention 

 of this visitation is also made elsewhere ; but, as 

 Kirby has already pointed out, there is probably 

 some slight inaccuracy with regard to the date, as 

 cockchafers do not usually appear imtil the latter end 

 of April or beginning of May, hence Ihe synonyms 



"Maybug" in England and " Maychafer " (Mai- 

 kafer) in Germany. Figuier mentions a somewhat 

 similar plague as occurring in the county of 

 Galway some 114 years later, when the destruction 

 of crops and general devastation wrought by these 

 unwelcome pests were so complete that in many 

 districts the natives had to fall back on the cooked 

 bodies of the invaders in order to stave off starvation. 

 Truly an ''injustice to Oireland " such as is rarely 

 experienced. During a gale in 1804 so enormous 

 was the number of cockchafers precipitated into the 

 Lake of Zurich that their drowned bodies formed a 

 thick bank along the shore, the fetid emanations from 

 which putrefying mass polluted the atmosphere for a 

 considerable distance in the vicinity. Figuier tells 

 us thai some years later vast clouds of these insects 

 traversed the Saone Valley, causing terrible destruc- 

 tion to the vineyards of the Maconnais ; the streets 

 of Macon itself being so thickly covered by them as 

 to render it necessary to shovel them up with spades. 

 Similar instances of like periodic great plagues ol 

 cockchafers which have from time to time occurred 

 on the Continent might be adduced without number, 

 but enough has been written to show that a "recon- 

 naissance in force " by a horde of these intrepid and 

 vt)racious beetles may not only become a serious local 

 catastrophe, but even conceivably assume the dimen- 

 sions of a national calamity. 



The life-history of McloloiitJia vulgaris, which is 

 the cockchafer par excellence, is soon told. The beetles 

 emerge from their subterranean quarters towards the 

 end of April or early in May, about the middle of 

 which latter month the mating takes place, shortly 

 after which the males die. The eggs, which are 

 round-oval and " about the size and shape of a hemp 

 seed" (Board of Agriculture Leaflet, No. 25), are of 

 a dirty yellowish-white, and are laid in June, each 

 female producing from twenty-five' to sixty eggs, 

 which are sometimes deposited together, but more 

 often divided up into two or more separate batches. 

 These are placed in the ground, the insects using 

 their short powerful forelegs to scoop holes for the 

 purpose of laying in. These cavities range in depth 

 from 2 inches to 8 inches, according to the nature of 

 the ground ; but when possible the females nearly 

 always select a nice light well-worked soil, such as 

 is to be found in nurseries, gardens, fields, and 

 similar situations. In fact, to a certain extent farm- 

 ing operations may be said to be favourable to cock- 

 chafer life, and it has been several times noted that 

 they often increase with the spread of agriculture. In 

 from a month to six weeks, the eggs in the meanwhile 

 having swelled considerably with the development of 

 the embryo, the larvae are hatched, and, being poly- 

 phagous, immediately commence to feed upon the 

 young and tender fibrous roots of whatever plants 

 may occur in their neighbourhood. When quite 

 young they can straighten themselves out and crawl, 

 but when older lose this power, in consequence of 

 which ambulatory evolutions above ground are" 

 rendered practically impossible. 



