The popular name in the East of England of the June-bug, Phyllopertha Horticola, a small beetle, related to the common cockchafer.
1813. Sir J. Cullum, Hawstead (Sussex) Wds. (E. D. S. Repr. Gl. 1879, 86), Chovee, a small beetle, of a bright chestnut colour, and with a green gilded head and corslet.
1830. Forby, Gloss. E. Anglia, Chovy, a small coleopterous insect, which invades gardens and orchards in hot summers, in our sandy districts … in such swarms as to be nearly equal to a plague of locusts.
1884. Chr. World, 18 Sept., 697/2. The sparrow … eats ‘chovies,’ or May bugs.
