130 
expenditure of $16,000. It was estimated that these beetles 
would have given origin the following year to 23,000,000,000 
white grubs. The proprietor of an establishment for the manu¬ 
facture of sugar from beets, whose crop was seriously affected 
by the ravages of the grubs, offered a prize of $4 for‘each one 
hundred kilogrammes (about two hundred and twenty pounds 
avoirdupois) of the beetles, and obtained as a consequence 
28,000,000 cockchafers,—equivalent to 560,000,000 grubs the 
following year.* 
Details of the common procedure in France are given by A. 
Walles in “Bulletin de la Societe Centrale d’Apiculture et d’ln- 
sectologie” for June, 1890. “It would be a mistake/’ he says, 
“to wait until the cockchafers [English name for the European 
equivalent of our June beetles] have emerged, since the whole 
benefit of the capture of the beetles will be lost if the females are 
given time to lay their eggs. Measures for the destruction of these 
insects must be taken, consequent^, from the time that a few 
begin to appear. Further, if in certain parts of the territory 
involved the capture of the beetles is neglected, the good effect 
of the procedure will be considerably diminished. These two 
points are essential and imperative. 
“The cockchafer catchers should be provided with hooked poles, 
with an awning cloth, or the like, and with bags for their catch. 
It will be well for them to go in little groups, and to make 
their rounds from the time of the first appearance of the insect. 
This last observation is most important. On the 12th of May, 
for example [in France], no more than twenty per cent, of the 
cockchafers captured in the trees will be females. A little later, on I 
the contrary, the males will have disappeared, and scarcely any 
but females will be found. These, however, will have laid their 
eggs. 
“The beetles may be most easily shaken down from the trees 
in which they are concealed, at the dawn of day, when they are 
still stupid with the coolness of the night, and this is, conse¬ 
quently, the time at which these collections should be made. 
Two persons will do well to work together when tall trees are 
to be visited. One strikes the branches and shakes them by 
means of the hook fastened into the end of his pole, while the 
other picks up the beetles. They can, of course, change places occa¬ 
sionally. When there is grass under the trees a cloth must be 
spread to catch the beetles, which would otherwise often be lost. 
It will be very easy to clear trees of smaller size by shaking j 
them energetically, but not violently enough to break them. 
“It is perhaps in the canton of Mayenne that the cockchafer 
hunt is pursued by the inhabitants with the greatest method, 
energy, and perseverance. There those engaged in the chase of 
the beetles are divided into squads of four (men, women, or 
. * statements concerning enormous collections and their cost in Germany are 
given in laschenbergs Practical Entomology [Praktische Insektenkunde) Vol. I., Pt. II., 
p. o7. 
