HABITS OF THE COCKCHAFER. 27 



fitted for cutting and grinding the leaves of plants, upon 

 which these beetles subsist ; their notched or double claws 

 support them securely on the foliage; and their strong and 

 jagged fore-legs, being formed for digging in the ground, 

 point out the place of their transformations. 



The habits and transformations of the common cockchafer 

 of Europe have been carefully observed, and will serve to 

 exemplify those of the other insects of this family, which, as 

 far as they are known, seem to be nearly the same. This 

 insect devours the leaves of trees and shrubs. Its duration 

 in the perfect state is very short, each individual. living only 

 about a week, and the species entirely disappearing in the 

 course of a month. After the sexes have paired, the males 

 perish, and the females enter the earth to the depth of six 

 inches or more, making their way by means of the strong 

 teeth which arm the fore-legs ; here they deposit their eggs, 

 amounting, according to some writers, to nearly one hundred, 

 or, as others assert, to two hundred from each female, which 

 are abandoned by the parent, who generally ascends again to 

 the surface, and perishes in a short time. 



From the eggs are hatched, in the space of fourteen days, 

 little whitish grubs, each provided with six legs near the 

 head, and a mouth furnished with strong jaws. When in a 

 state of rest, these grubs usually curl themselves in the shape 

 of a crescent. They subsist on the tender roots of various 

 plants, committing ravages among these vegetable substances, 

 on some occasions of the most deplorable kind, so as totally 

 to disappoint the best-founded hopes of the husbandman. 

 During the summer they live under the thin coat of vegeta- 

 ble mould near the surface, but, as winter approaches, they 

 descend below the reach of frost, and remain torpid until the 

 succeeding spring, at which time they change their skins, and 

 reascend to the surface for food. At the close of their third 

 summer (or, as some say, of the fourth or fifth) they cease 

 eating, and penetrate about two feet deep into the earth ; 

 there, by its motions from side to side, each grub forms an 



