Part 34

This family contains a great number of species, the type of which is the Rose Beetle (_Cetonia aurata_), of a beautiful green colour shot with gold, with transverse whitish lines. The rose beetle frequents roses especially, of which it eats the petals and the stamens. It is the _Golden Melolontha_ of Aristotle, who tells us that this unfortunate insect shared with the cockchafer the privilege of amusing children. The _Cetonia_ flies by day and by night, making use of its inferior wings without opening the elytra (Fig. 423). When seized, it pours out from the extremity of its abdomen a foetid liquid, the only means of defence the poor insect possesses. The larva (Fig. 424) much resembles the larva of the cockchafers, but the legs are shorter. It is found in rotten wood, and often in ants' nests. When it has acquired its full development it makes a cocoon of an oval form (Fig. 424), in which it transforms itself into a pupa; the cocoon is composed of bits of wood agglomerated with a silky matter which the larva secretes.

The larva of the _Cetonia splendidula_--which is the most magnificent found in France--is met with sometimes in the nests of wild bees. In Russia the rose beetle is considered a very efficacious remedy for hydrophobia. In the governorship of Saratow, which is traversed by the Volga, hydrophobia is very frequent, on account of the heats which reign during the whole summer in its arid steppes. The inhabitants, incessantly exposed to be bitten by mad dogs, have tried in succession a great many preparations to remedy the results of these terrible accidents. It appears that the _Cetonia_, dried and reduced to powder, has produced on many occasions good effects. This is the recipe which an inhabitant of Saratow published in a Russian journal--adding, that he had employed it for thirty years, that not one of the patients treated by him had died, and that his remedy could be employed with success in all the phases of the disease:--In spring they search at the bottom of the nests of the wood ant for certain white larvæ, which they carefully preserve in a pot, together with the earth in which they were found, till the moment of their metamorphosis, which takes place in the month of May. The insect, which is the common rose beetle, is killed, dried, and kept in pots hermetically sealed, so that it may preserve the strong odour which it exhales in spring, which seems to be a necessary condition of the remedy proving efficient. When a case of hydrophobia presents itself, they reduce to powder some of these, and spread this powder on a piece of bread-and-butter, and make the patient eat it. Every part of the insect must enter into the composition of this powder, which, for this reason, cannot be very fine. During the whole time a patient is under treatment he must avoid drinking as much as possible, or, if his thirst is very great, he must only drink a little pure water; but he may eat. Generally, this remedy produces sleep, which may last for thirty-six hours, and which must not be disturbed. When the patient wakes, he is, they say, cured. The bite must be treated locally with the usual surgical appliances.

As to the dose of the remedy, that depends on the age of the patient and the development of the disease. They give, to an adult, immediately after the bite, from two to three beetles; to a child, from one to two; to a person in whom the disease has already declared itself, from four to five. Given to a person in good health, the remedy, however, would not be the least dangerous. In cases in which the symptoms of hydrophobia show themselves some days after the employment of the remedy, they recommence the treatment. They have also tried to prepare this remedy with insects collected not in their larvæ but in the imago state, by catching them on flowers, and it seems that these attempts have succeeded. According to M. Bogdanoff, in many governorships of the south of Russia the lovers of sporting are in the habit of making their dogs from time to time swallow (as a preservative) half of a _Cetonia_ with bread or a little wine. Every one in those countries is persuaded of the efficacy of this means for stopping the development of the disease. One ought not, perhaps, to reject a belief so widespread and deeply rooted without some experiments to guarantee us in doing so, for medicine does not yet possess any remedy against hydrophobia: it might not then be useless to try this.

Two smaller species than the rose beetle, the _Cetonia stictica_ and the _Cetonia hirtella_, which has yellowish hairs, live on the flowers of thistles. Western Africa, the Cape, Madagascar, &c., are very rich in species of _Cetoniæ_. Among the _Cetoniadæ_ is the genus _Goliathus_, gigantic insects which inhabit Africa. Their total length sometimes attains from three to five inches. Their colours are generally a dull white or yellow, which has nothing metallic about it, with spots of a velvety black--these are due to a sort of down of an extreme thinness, and which very easily comes off. The head of these enormous Coleoptera is generally cut or scooped out, and is adorned sometimes with one or two horns. Their legs, strong and robust, are armed with spurs, and sometimes present on their exterior sharp indentations, which give to these insects a crabbed physiognomy, which their inoffensive habits are far from justifying. All these horns, and all these teeth, which look so terrible, are nothing, in fact, with a great number of these insects, but simple ornaments. They compose the picturesque uniform of the males. They are equivalent to the bear-skin caps, the flaming helmets, and the bullion-fringed epaulettes of our soldiers. The dress of the female _Goliathus_ is much more modest, as is becoming to the sex. We here represent the _Goliathus Derbyana_ (Fig. 426) and Polyphemus (Fig. 427).

The Goliaths were formerly excessively rare in collections, and of a price inaccessible to ordinary amateurs--one single specimen costing as much as twenty pounds. But for some time the Goliaths of the coast of Guinea and of Cape Palmas have been sold to European amateurs at a modest price, thanks to those travellers who, after the example of Dr. Savage, have collected them by hundreds in the countries which produce them. These enormous Coleoptera are seen on the coast of Guinea fluttering about at the top of trees, the flowers of which they are seeking after. To catch them the trees are felled or else they are shot at with a gun loaded with sand, as is also done for the humming-birds. The species which Dr. Savage made common is the _Goliathus cacicus_, of which we represent the male and female (Figs. 428, 429). It is met with on the coast of Guinea. The _Goliathus Druryi_ (Fig. 430) inhabits Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Guinea. The numerous expeditions which are at the present moment being made into the interior of Africa will not fail to increase the number of species of these splendid insects, which are the ornament of all collections.

The group of the _Trichiadæ_, which has in this country and in France a few representatives, is very nearly the same as that of the _Cetoniadæ_. The _Trichiadæ_ have the elytra shorter, the abdomen bigger, and the legs more slender. The _Trichius fasciatus_, which is black, and covered with an ashy down, with the elytra yellow, and with three black bands, is to be met with in quantities on the garden rose-tree, in the months of June and July. The larvæ live in the interior of old beams of wood, respecting their surfaces. In a garden, at a few leagues from Paris, a little wooden bridge had been built. It seemed on the outside to be in a perfect state of preservation. Nothing on the exterior would have led one to think it was possible for the oak timbers which composed it to break down. A good many of them, however, broke suddenly. It was then seen that the wood had been scooped out right up to the surface, which was nothing better than a thin sheet, of an imperceptible thinness. All the interior was full of _Trichii_, in the states of larva, pupa, and perfect insect.

The _Trichius fasciatus_, sometimes called the Bee Beetle, is very common in the environs of Paris. Geoffroy has described it under the rather quaint name of the "Livrée d'Ancre," because the Marquis of Ancre made his servants wear yellow coats, bordered by braid alternately crossed with green and yellow.

The _Osmoderma eremita_ is a large insect, of purple colour, formerly common in the environs of Paris, and which, now-a-days, cannot be found nearer than Fontainebleau. One must look for them in earth which fills up the cavity of old willows or of pear trees. The smell of Russia leather, or of plum, which it exhales, has caused it to be called, in some places, the Plum-tree Beetle.

The _Gnorimus nobilis_ much resembles the rose beetle, and is found on elder flowers, the whiteness of which this golden insect relieves. One species, much smaller, only one or two lines long, is the _Valgus hemipterus_, which is often met with in spring, in the dust of the roads. The female has a long auger, which enables it to deposit its eggs in rotten wood. Dumeril has described at length the singular movements of this little insect:--The jerking and, as it were convulsive, movements by which it transports itself from one place to another; its tottering attitude, resulting from the excessive length of its hind legs; the vertical carriage of these, which, by their singular direction, interfere much with the walking, which is directed by the other legs. One should, above all, notice the artifice which the _Valgus_ employs, as indeed do many Coleoptera, to escape from his persecutors, by counterfeiting death. As soon as it is seized by any enemy, its members stiffen and become motionless. The body, abandoned to itself, lies unevenly on whatever side it falls, for its legs no longer bend; if you bend them over, they remain in the inclination given to them. Nothing then betrays life in this little dry and slender being, frozen with fear, and imitating death, without, perhaps, being aware itself of what it is doing.

We must still further mention here the _Incas_--beautiful insects of the same group, which are met with in South America, and whose males have an extraordinary head. They fly during the day round the great trees on which they live. Fig. 431 represents the _Inca clathrata_.

The most commonly-known insect of the family with which we are now occupied is the cockchafer. The French word for cockchafer, _hanneton_, according to M. Mulsant, comes from the Latin, _alitonus_ (which has sonorous wings), which first became _halleton_. Linnæus gave them first the name of _Melolontha_, which they probably had among the Greeks, and which seems to be the case from this passage in Aristophanes, in his comedy of "The Clouds:"--"Let your spirit soar," says the Greek author, "let it fly whither it lists, like the Melolontha tied with a thread by the leg." We see that the habit of martyrising cockchafers is of very early date. The Common Cockchafer (Fig. 432) is one of the greatest pests to agriculture. In its perfect state it devours the leaves of many trees, principally those of the elm; and so children call the fruit of the elm-tree by the name of "Pains d'Hanneton." But the destruction which they occasion in their perfect state is little when compared with that which is caused by their larvæ--those white grubs so dreaded by agriculturists.

Cockchafers make their appearance from the month of April, if the season is warm. But it is in the month of May that they show themselves in great quantities; and so they are called in Germany _Maikäfer_ (Maychafer). They are met with also in June. The duration of their life as a perfect insect is six weeks. They fear the heat of the day and the bright sunshine, so, during the day, they remain hooked on to the under surface of leaves. It is only early in the morning, and at sunset, that one sees the cockchafers fluttering round the trees which they frequent. They fly with rapidity, producing a monotonous sound by the friction of their wings. But the cockchafer steers badly when it flies; it knocks itself at each instant against obstacles it meets with. It then falls heavily to the ground, and becomes the plaything of children, who are constantly on the look-out for them. There is a saying, "Étourdi comme un hanneton." What contributes still more to render the flight of these insects heavy and sustained only for a short time together is that they are obliged to inflate themselves like balloons in order to rise into the air: it is a peculiarity which they share with the migratory 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 manoeuvre, say 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 à l'école."

A variation which we hear in the western provinces of France is the following:--

"Barbot, vole, vole, vole, Ton père est à l'école, Qui m'a dit, si tu ne voles, Il 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 insects, seems, on the contrary, to stupefy them, and it is during the night only that they devour the leaves of elms, poplars, oaks, beech, birch-trees, &c. In years when their number is not very great, one hardly perceives the damage done by them; but at certain periods they appear in innumerable legions, and then whole parts of gardens or woods are stripped of their verdure, and present, in the middle of the summer, the appearance of a winter landscape. The trees thus stripped do not in general die; but they recover their former vigour with difficulty, and, in the case of orchard trees, remain one or two years without bearing fruit. It is principally the trees skirting woods, and situated along cultivated fields, which are exposed to the ravages of the cockchafer, because the larvæ of these insects are developed in the fields. In the interior of forests they are never met with in great numbers.

In certain years cockchafers multiply in such a frightful manner that they devastate the whole vegetation of a country. In the environs of Blois 14,000 cockchafers were picked up by children in a few days. At Fontainebleau they could have gathered as many in a certain year in as many hours. Sometimes they congregate in swarms, like locusts, and migrate from one locality to another, when they lay waste everything. To present an idea of the prodigious extent to which cockchafers increase under certain circumstances, we will give a few statistics:--In 1574, these insects were so abundant in England that they stopped many mills on the Severn. In 1688, in the county of Galway, in Ireland, they formed such a black cloud that the sky was darkened for the distance of a league, and the country people had great difficulty in making their hay in the places where they alighted. They destroyed the whole of the vegetation in such a way that the landscape assumed the desolate appearance of winter. Their voracious jaws made a noise which may be compared to that produced by the sawing of a large piece of wood, and in the evening the buzzing of their wings resembled the distant rolling of drums. The unfortunate Irish were reduced to the necessity of cooking their invaders, and, for the want of any other food, of eating them. In 1804, immense swarms of cockchafers, precipitated by a violent wind into the Lake of Zurich, formed on the shore a thick bank of bodies heaped up one on the other, the putrid exhalations from which poisoned the atmosphere. On May 18, 1832, at nine o'clock in the evening, a legion of cockchafers assailed a diligence on the road from Gournay to Gisors, just as it was leaving the village of Talmontiers; the horses, blinded and terrified, refused to advance, and the driver was obliged to return as far as the village, to wait till this new sort of hail-storm was over. M. Mulsant, in his "Monographie des Lamellicornes de la France," relates that in May, 1841, clouds of cockchafers traversed the Saône, from the south-east in the direction of the north-west, and settled in the vineyards of the Mâconnais. The streets of the town of Mâcon were so full of them, that they were shovelled up with spades. At certain hours, one could not pass over the bridge without whirling a stick rapidly round and round, to protect oneself against their touch.

The coupling takes place towards the end of May, after which the males die; the females only surviving them from 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 leg 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, light, 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. It is the child of civilisation, the parasite of agriculture. In from four to six weeks after being laid, the little larvæ are hatched (Fig. 433), and immediately attack the roots of vegetables. They have a hard and horny head, and slender black legs, longer than in any other species of _Scarabæides_. Their body is composed of a whitish pulp under a transparent skin; the head and the mouth have a reddish tinge. The length of their existence in this state is three, sometimes four years. From the egg laid in the month of June is hatched a larva, in the month of July. It increases in size during the last six months of the year, and continues to do so during the two following years, changing its skin many times during the period. Towards the end of the third year it changes into a pupa, after having surrounded itself with a cocoon consolidated with a glutinous froth and some threads of silk. The pupa (Fig. 434) is of a pale russety yellow, with two little points at the extremity of its body; the elytra and the wings, lying down, cover the legs and the antennæ.

Towards the end of October the perfect insect is already marked out, but it is still soft and weak. It passes the winter in its hiding-place, hardens and becomes coloured at the end of the winter, and shows itself by degrees on the surface of the ground. In the month of April, three years after its birth, the cockchafer emerges from the earth, and commences its attack on the leaves of trees. This long duration of the development of the insect explains why we do not see them every year in the same number. When they have once appeared in great quantities, it is not for three years afterwards that we need expect to see their progeny again in proportionate numbers. It is, then, every three years that we have a _cockchafer year_ like 1865, but in the intermediate years they are never very abundant. For the first year the little larvæ do not eat much. They feed then principally on fragments of dung, and on vegetable detritus, and keep together in families. In winter they bury themselves deeply, so as to be secure against frost and floods. Next spring the want of a greater abundance of food forces them to disperse. They then make subterranean galleries in all directions, without, however, going far from the place where they were hatched. They begin attacking the roots which they find within their reach; the damage they do increasing with their size and the strength of their mandibles. Among roots, they seem to prefer those of the strawberry and of rose-trees; but they do not despise other vegetables, and attack legumes and cereals as well as bushes and plants. The ravages which they occasion are sometimes incalculable; market gardens are sometimes entirely devastated. Fields of lucerne have been seen partially destroyed by them; meadows of great extent lose their pasturage; oat fields die off before they have come to maturity; and many of the ears of corn fall before they are cut.

In proportion as they increase in age and in strength--especially in their last year--do they attack also ligneous vegetation. When they have gnawed away the lateral roots of a young tree, the new shoots corresponding to them dry up. The larvæ then attack the principal root, and thus bring about the death of the tree. There will be found round the roots of trees thus attacked immense numbers of these worms. M. Deschiens relates that he had seen six hectares of acorns, sown three times in the space of five years with a perfect result, entirely destroyed as many times by the larvæ of the cockchafer. A nurseryman of Bourg-la-Reine suffered, in 1854, from the ravages of these terrible larvæ, losses which he estimated at 30,000 francs. Others only preserved about a hundredth part of their plants. In Prussia they destroyed, in 1835, a considerable nursery of trees in the _Institut Forestier_. In the forests of Kolbetz more than a thousand measures of wild pines were destroyed in the same way.

We shall not, then, be surprised to learn that the thunders of excommunication were formerly launched at the cockchafers, as they were also at the caterpillars and the locusts. We do not know whether this had much impression upon them. In 1479, the cockchafers having occasioned a famine in the country, were cited before the ecclesiastical tribunal of Lausanne. The advocate (Fribourg) who defended them, did not find, doubtlessly, in the resources of his eloquence arguments powerful enough in their favour; for the tribunal, after mature deliberation, condemned the accused troop, and sentenced them to be banished from the territory. But it is not enough to pass a sentence--there must also be the means of putting it in execution; and these were wanting to the tribunal of Lausanne. And so the condemned cockchafers continued to live on Swiss land, without appearing mindful of the condemnation which had been fulminated against them.

The larvæ of the cockchafer are not easily destroyed. They successfully resist those scourges which one fancies must harm them. Thus, the inundation which devastated the banks of the Saône, fifteen years ago, had no effect on them. The land and meadows, which had remained for from four to five weeks under water, were none the more rid of them. The only circumstance which is really hurtful to them, and to the adult cockchafer, is late frost in the months of April and May. When these frosts come after mild weather, they surprise the larvæ at the surface of the soil, and kill them. Unfortunately, the same causes do harm to the plants which have already begun to spring up. Nature has not, then, sufficiently provided the means of destroying these mischievous beings. One would say that she had not foreseen their extraordinary multiplication, which has been, we must confess, encouraged by agriculture and by the cultivation of the land.