INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 177 



does the crop considerable damage; so that a plant of the 

 fairest appearance will, in consequence of the voracity of 

 this little enemy, produce scarcely any thing. Another 

 species [Apionjlavipes) infests the Dutch or white clover 3 . 

 The young plants of purple clover, when just sprung, are 

 often, as Mr. Joseph Stickney pointed out to me, much 

 injured by the same little jumping beetles (Haltica, F.) 

 that attack the turnips. 



But not only, if let loose to the work of destruction, 

 might insects annihilate our grain and pulse; they would 

 also deprive the earth of that beautiful green carpet which 

 now covers it, and is so agreeable and so refreshing to the 

 sight. When you see a large tract of land lying fallow, 

 as is sometimes the case in open districts, with no inter- 

 vening i:>atches of verdure, how unpleasant and uncom- 

 fortable is it to your eye! What then would be your sen- 

 sations, were the whole face of the earth bare, and not 

 dressed by Flora? But such a state of things would soon 

 take place, if to punish us, or to teach us thankfulness to 

 the great Arbiter of our fate, the insects that feed upon 

 the grass of our pastures were to become as generally nu- 

 merous as they are occasionally permitted to do. One of 

 the worst of these ravagers is the grub of the common 

 cockchafer [Melolontha vulgaris, F.) b This insect, which 

 is found to remain in the larva state four years, sometimes 

 destroys whole acres of grass, as I can aver from my own 

 observation. It undermines the richest meadows, and so 

 loosens the turf that it will roll up as if cut with a turfing- 

 spade. These grubs did so much injury about seventy 



a Markwick, Marsham and Lehmann in Linn. Trans, vi. 142. — 

 and Kirby in ditto, ix. 37. 42. n. 19. 28. 



b Plate XVII. Fig. 12. 

 VOL. I. N 



