Life History.

The cockchafer is very nearly an inch in length, of a brownish colour, with light coloured scales. Its body is covered with a pubescence, or short down, like tiny scales. It is furnished with remarkable antennæ, having knobs at their extremities, which fold together like the divisions of a fan, or the folds of a screen. In the male there are seven of these folds, in the female only six. It has very powerful jaws adapted for biting foliage. There are large hooks upon its claws to enable it to cling to leaves and branches, and its legs, six in number, are strong and well adapted for burrowing in the ground for the purpose of egg laying. This takes place at the end of July. The female goes into the ground to the depth of seven or eight inches, and lays from thirty to forty eggs of a dirty white colour, and a long oval shape. She then returns to the earth and resumes her ordinary life for a short period. The larvæ are hatched from the eggs in about 5 weeks. They are thick, fleshy, and more than an inch and a quarter long when full sized, of a whitish colour, with the head slightly yellow, having jaws fitted for gnawing roots, and three pairs of short dark feet. The last segment of the body is larger and more developed than the others, appearing to be filled with a substance of a violet hue. At first the larvae grow slowly, as a rule congregating closely together just under the page 34 ground, feeding then upon the small and most tender roots. At the approach of frost and cold they go down to a depth of nine to twelve inches for hibernation, coming up in the spring full-grown to attack roots of all kinds. In this state they remain in the land three years at least: Köllar says for five years and even longer. The pupa state is assumed in the autumn, and retained until the spring, when the pupa case is cast off and the change is accomplished in about fourteen clays, then in perfect beetle guise the insects come from the earth, and commence their depredation. The lame cannot exist above ground, and soon die when exposed to the air.