
COLEOPTERA, 451 
the time necessary to ensure the propagation of the species. 
The number of eggs which a female lays is from twenty to 
thirty. With her front legs she hollows out a hole in the ground 
from two to four inches in depth, and deposits her eggs, of 
a yellowish white and of the size of hemp-seed, therein. Her 
instinct leads her to choose soft, ight, and well-manured soils, 
which are, at the same time, the best ventilated and the most 
fertile. We may conclude from this that cultivation and labour 
have made the cockchafer more common than it was formerly. 

Fig. 433.—Larva of the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris). 
It is the child of civilisation, the parasite of agriculture. 
In from four to six weeks after being laid, the little larves are 
5 ’ 
hatched (Fig. 433), and immediately attack the roots of vege- 
ro) ) yi co) 
‘tables. They have a hard and horny head, and slender black legs, 
longer than in other species of Scarabaides. Their body is com- 
sed of a whitish pulp under a transparent skin, the head an 
posed of a whitish pulp und trans} t skin, the head and 

Fig. 484. —Pupa of the Cockchafer (Afelolontha vulgaris). 
the mouth haye a reddish tinge. The length of their existence 
n this state is three, sometimes four years. From the ego laid 
n the month of June is hatched a larva in the month of July. 
[t increases in size during the last six months of the year, and 
ag 2 















