30 COLEOPTERA. 



and of course would require many more of a smaller size. 



Say that, on an average of sizes, they consumed twenty 



apiece, these for the five make one hundred. Each of the 



parents consume say fifty ; so that the pair and family devour 



two hundred every day. This, in three months, amounts to 



twenty thousand in one season. But as the grub continues 



in that state, four seasons, this single pair, with their family 



alone, without reckoning their descendants after the first 



year, would destroy eighty thousand grubs. Let us suppose 



that the half, namely, forty thousand, are females, and it is 



known that they usually lay about two hundred eggs each, 



it will appear, that no less than eight millions have been 



destroyed, or prevented from being hatched, by the labors of 



a single family of jays. It is by reasoning in this way, that 



we learn to know of what importance it is to attend to the 



economy of nature, and to be cautious how we derange it by 



our shortsighted and futile operations." Our own country 



abounds with insect-eating beasts and birds, and without 



doubt the more than abundant Melolonthse form a portion 



of their nourishment. 



We have several Melolonthians whose injuries in the perfect 



and grub state approach to those of the Eu- 

 Fig. 10. ° r r 



ropean cockchafer. Phyllophaga * quercina of 



Knoch, the May-beetle, as it is generally 



called here, is our common species. (Fig. 



10.) It is of a chestnut-brown color, smooth, 



but finely punctured, that is, covered with 



( ^H^ J ^ tt ^ e impressed dots, as if pricked with the 



point of a needle ; each wing-case has two or 



* A genus proposed by me in 1826. It signifies leaf-eater. Dejean subse- 

 quently called this genus Ancylonychafi 



[ s The genus Phyllophaga was indeed proposed by Dr. Harris, but was not 

 accompanied by any description; it must therefore yield to the name Lachnosterna 

 of Hope, described in 1837. Burmeister has improperly adopted for the genus the 

 name given by Dejean, but which was not sanctioned by a description until 1845. 

 It is a very numerous genus, and many of the species resemble each other very 

 closely. — Lec] 



