
COLEOPTERA. 449 
| What contributes still more to render the flight of these insects 
heavy and sustained -for only a short time together, is that they 
are obliged to inflate themselves like balloons in order to rise 
into the air. Itisa peculiarity which they share with the migra- 
jtory locust. Before taking its flight, the cockchafer agitates its 
|wings for some minutes, and inflates its abdomen with air. The 
French children, who perceive this manceuvre, say then that the 
cockchafer “compte ses écus”’ (is counting its money), and they 
sing to it this refrain, which has been handed down for many 
generations :— 
“ Hanneton, vole, vole, 
Va-t’en a l’école.”’ 
A variation which we hear in the western provinces of France 
lis the following :— 
“‘ Barbot, vole, vole, vole, 
Ton pére est 4 1’école 
Qui m’a dit, si tu ne voles, 
I te coupera la gorge 
Avec un grand couteau de Saint-George.”’ 
During the day the cockchafers remain under the leaves in a state 
of perfect immobility ; for the heat which gives activity to other 
sects, seems, on the contrary, to stupefy them, and it is during the 
might only that they.devour the leaves of elms, poplars, oaks, 
yeech, birch trees, &c. In years when their number is not 
yery great, one hardly perceives the damage done by them; but 
it certain periods they <_ ‘ear in innumerable legions, and then 
vhole parts of gardens or woods are stripped of their verdure, 
md present, in the middle of the summer, the appearance of a 
vinter landscape. The trees thus stripped do not in general die ; 
mt they recover their former vigour with difficulty, and, in the 
ase of orchard trees, remain one or two years without bearing 
mut. It is principally the trees skirting woods, and situated 
long cultivated fields, which are exposed to the ravages of the 
ockchafer, because the larvee of these insects are developed in the 
lelds. In the interior of forests they are never met with in great 
um bers. 
In certain years cockchafers multiply in such a frightful manner 
hat they devastate the whole vegetation of a country. In the 
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