Fig. 430.—Goliathus Druryi (natural size).
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.
Fig. 431.—Inca clathrata.
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, pro ducing 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 manœuvre, 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."