NATURAL HISTOllY OP SELBOilNE. 
55 
LETTEE XXIY. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, May 29th, 1769. 
Dear Sir, — The scarahceus fullo I know very well, having seen it 
in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in its 
natural state. Mr. Banks told me 
he thought it might be found on the 
seacoast.^ 
On the thirteenth of April I 
went to the sheep-down, where the 
ring-ousels have been observed to 
make their appearance at spring and 
fall, in their way perhaps to the 
north or south; and was much 
pleased to see these birds about the 
usual spot. We shot a cock and a 
hen ; they were plump and in high 
condition. The hen had but very 
small rudiments of eggs within her, 
* Melalontha fullo, Fabmcius. Chafer or cock-cliafer, but not the species that is 
so well known co schoolboys. This species is a rare British insect, very local in its 
distribution, being hitherto chiefly found in Kent ; it is remarkable for the large size 
and development of the antennas. These insects are almost all extremely destruc- 
tive, feeding voraciously on the leaves of shrubs and trees. The common cockchafer, 
sometimes called May bug (woodcut), often appears in immense numbers, and 
commits great havoc. On the continent they are even more destructive than in 
this country, and governments have directed their attention to the best mode 
of compassing their destruction. In the larva state they are vegetable eaters, 
feeding upon the roots of plants, while in the perfect or beetle state they attack 
the foliage. It is in this condition they are most easily destroyed ; being a large 
insect they can be collected by labourers or children, and in some parts they are 
so numerous that oil is extracted from them by boiling. There are several allusions 
to this insect in the ancient writers, and we are indebted to W. B. Macdonald of 
Rammerscales for selecting the following quotations — 
The /jLyiXG?iovdy} is mentioned by Aristophanes, " Clouds," n. 761. Socrates Icq. 
ocYi VVV !T£^; (ravTOv tlkkz crrjv yvuf^viv ocs), 
kivo^lTOv aa-^re^ f^Tikokovdviv rod ^ohos, 
" Do not now always revolve your thoughts around yourself, but set your medi- 
tation (give rein to your meditation) free into the air, fastened with a strong thi'cad 
to its foot like a cockchafer. " 
Greek boys, without the fear of Martin's act before their eyes, were wont thus 
to amuse themselves with cockchafers chained by a thread. Madame Dacier 
however here supposes an allusion to an opinion of Socrates that the human soul 
had wings. The scholiast to Aristophanes remarks that it is Iaju0i6v xi''"^*^°^ 
y-avBot^Cf) oix^oiov — ockkajq rov ;^fy<ro;t«)/^iflt^o>', Z,iiiav Br., o rot? civGitriv {■nx.ocQiZ^iTo.i — kiyu 
}>l rov .:t?y<'"*««vCflt^c«/. — i.e. A little animal of goldish hue like a cantharus, otherwise 
a chrysocantharus ; in barbaric Greek "2ina," — which rests upon flowers — and 
some call it a " golden cantharus." 
Aristophanes in his "Wasps," 1342, calls a young glee-maiden x^v(ro[jt,yiXoXovQiov 
**a little golden cock-chafer." 
