AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. /6 



too familiar name of ivhite worms, they do so much mis- 

 chief to our garden vegetables, nurseries, and natural 

 and artificial plantations ; sometimes destroying even 

 huge trees by devouring their rootlets. On the ap- 

 proach of the cold season they again retire, only, 

 however, to reappear in the following year. This sub- 

 terranean life lasts for three years, or even more in 

 occasional instances. 



However, when fully grown, each larva makes a 

 larger tunnel than ever, and constructs an ovoid 

 chamber of a sort of mortar composed of clay and a 

 gelatinous fluid which it secretes, and in this rough 

 cocoon it is transformed into the nymph or pupa. In 

 this condition it is very like a chrysalis ; but the wings, 

 legs, and antennas, instead of being covered by the 

 varnish before mentioned, are inclosed in special cases, 

 and are applied to the surface of the body. 



The cockchafer in its new condition remains torpid 

 for five or six months. It wakes up toward the end 

 of February and emerges from its case ; but its body 

 is still quite soft and uncoloured, and hence it is un- 

 fitted to brave the dangers of its future world. It 

 remains in the ground, therefore, till its skin has become 

 hard and strong, and finally leaves its subterranean 

 abode about the end of April. It now flies to some 

 adjacent tree, and though in its perfect insect condition, 

 commences to devour the leaflets just as it destroyed 

 the rootlets when it was in the white-worm stage. 



In most classifications, the Neuroptera come after 

 the Coleoptera ; but in order to study, step by step, 

 the phenomena we are now considering, we must 

 invert the zoological order of succession, and pass on 

 in the next place to the Hymenoptera. 



