NATURAL HISTORY. an. 
mills. ‘This was on the 27th of February ; but the larger fort do not 
appear till Afay. In Jre/and they fuffered fo much by thefe infects, 
that they refolved to fet fire to a.-wood of fome miles extent, to prevent 
their communication with others at fome diftance. And indeed it is 
certain, that where there are few trees and many rooks, the inhabitants 
are leaft infefted with them.’ ; 
In fome years their necks are covered with a red plate, and in others ° 
with one that is black; but thefe are diflin@ forts; and fome have 
obferved that they do not appear in the fame year, but alternately. 
Refel has been fo curious as to catch fome of thefe infects and put them 
under glaffes, where they laid great numbers of eggs; from whence it 
is plain that they do not bring forth their young alive, which was 
doubted of before. They foon change to worms of a white colour, 
and at laft increafe to a confiderable bulk, and he kept them two years 
_ in this ftate, and fome three, without any change, excepting their be- 
- Coming larger. At this time they were an inch anda half long, and 
of a yellowifh white colour. Their body confifts of twelve fegments— 
6r joints, as thofe of caterpillars, without including the head, On 
each fide the body there is a protuberance that runs all along the 
feements; in it there are nine holes, through which this worm is fup- 
Pofed to breathe. Under the three firft there are fix feet, of a reddith- 
brown, compofed of four or five joints, and they are all alike hairy, 
and of the colour of the feet. ‘The head is large in proportion to the’ 
body, and of a brownith {hining yellow, with a pincher or nipper placed 
before, of a deep brown, and blunt, but dentated at the end; between 
thefe there is a fort of femicircular lip, and by the help thereof, this 
infe& cuts the roots of plants and fucks out their moifture. There is 
No appearance of eyes, but behind the nipper there is a feeler, confilt- 
ing of five joints, and of a brownith-yellow colour. This worm changes _ 
its fkin once every year, and towards the end of the fourth year becomes 
a May-Bug. : 
_ The American ball Beetle; called by the inhabitants Tumble-dung, 
is the moft numerous and remarkable of the Beetle-kind of any in 
orth-America. Their employment is to find nelts for their eggs. 
"hey are endowed with fagacity to difcover fubfiltence by their excel- 
lent fmelling, which direéts them in flights to excrements jaft fallen 
rom man or bealt, on which they inftantly drop,.and fall unanimoufly 
‘to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of 
which they lay an egg. ‘hefe pellets in September, they convey three 
feet deep in the earth where they lye till the approach of fpring, when 
the eggs are hatched and burft their nefts, and the infects find their 
Way out of the earth. They affit each other with indefatigable induf- 
try in rolling thefe globular balls or pellets to the place where they are 
to be buried. This they are to perform with the breech foremoft, by 
Yaifing up their hinder part, and fhoving along the ball with their hind 
feet. This infe@ is'all over of a dufky black, and has fix legs, two of 
Which are joined to the breaft and four to the belly. They are always , 
accompanied with other Beetles of a larger fize, and of a more elegant 
ftruaure and colour. The brealt of this is covered with a thield of a 
ctimfon colour, and fhining like metal ; the head is of the like colour, 
Mixed with green, and on the crown of the head ftands a fhining black 
horn bended backwards. ‘Thefe are called the kings of thefe beetles, 
but 
