THE BEETLE. 
343 
When largest, they are found an inch and an half long, 
of a whitish yellow colour, with a body consisting of twelve 
segments or joints, on each side of which there are nine 
breathing holes, and three red feet. The head is lar^e, in 
proportion to the body, of a reddish colour, with a pincer 
before, and a semi-circular lip, with which it cuts the roots 
of plants, and sucks out their moisture. As this insect lives 
entirely under ground, it has no occasion for eyes, and ac- 
cordingly it is found to have none; but is furnished with 
two feelers, which like the crutch of a blind man, serve to 
direct its motions. Such is the form of this animal, that 
lives for years in the worm state under ground, still voraci- 
ous, and every year changing its skin. 
It is not till the end of the fourth year, that this ex- 
traordinary insect prepares to emerge from its subterraneous 
abode, and even this is not effected, but by a tedious pre- 
paration. 
About the latter end of autumn, the grub begins to per- 
ceive the approach of its transformation : it then buries itself 
deeper and deeper in the earth, sometimes six feet beneath 
the surface, and there forms itself a capacious apartment, 
the walls of which it renders very smooth and shining by the 
excretions of its body. Its abode being thus formed, it be- 
gins soon after to shorten itself, to swell, and to burst its last 
skin, in order to assume the form of a chrysalis. This in the 
beginning appears of a yellowish colour, which heightens by 
decrees, till at last it is seen nearly red. Its exterior form 
plainly discovers all the vestiges of the future winged insect, 
all the fore parts being distinctly seen ; while behind, the 
animal seems as if wrapped in swaddling clothes. 
The young may-bug continues in this state for about three 
months longer, and as it is not till the beginning of January 
that the aurelia divests itself of all its impediments, and be- 
comes a winged insect, completely formed ; yet still the 
animal is far from attaining its natural strength, health and 
appetite. It undergoes a kind of infant imbecility ; and, 
unlike most other insects, that the instant they become flies, 
are arrived at their state of full perfection, the may-bug 
continues feeble and sickly. 
Its colour is much brighter than in the perfect animal ; 
all its parts are soft, and its voracious nature seems, for 
awhile, to have entirely forsaken it. 
About the latter end of May, these insects, after having 
lived for four years under ground, burst from the earth, when 
the first mild evening invites them abroad. They are at that 
time seen rising from their long imprisonment, from living 
