252 
LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
The cockchafer or May-bug, which blunders up 
against us as he flies heavily in the night air, began 
his life underground more than three years ago. 
His mother, groping down into the earth in the early 
spring, hid herself there and laid from thirty to forty 
Fig. 86. 
1 M$V: 
Life of a Cockchafer.* From Blanchard. 
g, Young grub feeding in the earth ; c, cocoon; c', a cocoon cut 
open to show pupa of the cockchafer with beginning of wings. Above 
ground the cockchafer is shown both walking and flying, e, Elytra, 
or wing-covers. 
eggs, which, at the end of about five weeks, were 
hatched and became blind white grubs (g, Fig. 86) 
with six slender black legs and hard horny jaws. 
After a short time these grubs set to work to gnaw 
* Melolontha vtdgaris. 
