DESTROYERS OF GRASS. 105 



awl-like point."* Now this pointed instrument, which always 

 belongs to and betokens a hen among these insect cranes, she 

 employs, under direction of prospective instinct, to bore the 

 ground for deposition within its bosom of her numerous eggs. 

 From these, which have been compared to grains of gun- 

 powder, issue in due season the verdure-blasting trains, which, 

 devouring the roots below, give to the herbage above the 

 appearance of being scorched by fire, or even totally consumed ; 

 as in an instance, adduced by Mr. Eennie, of an acre of 

 ground at Blackheath, which he saw in the summer of 1828, 

 " stripped of grass and everything green, as if pared off from 

 the surface * by the full-fed larvse, then about to assume 

 their second form of pupse.f 



Reaumur, who describes resembling effects from the like 

 insect causes, in Poitou, opined that these destructive little 

 animals are earth-eaters, causing injury to roots only by dis- 

 turbance of the ground. This supposition is admitted by the 

 naturalist before named to have some confirmation in the fact 

 that certain species of Tipula feed, as grubs, upon the vege- 

 table mould in hollow trees ; but, amidst different opinions, it 

 would seem still a questionable point, whether the lanky 

 limbs of Father Longlegs are to be considered as most of earthy 

 or of rooty derivation. 



But upon whatsoever nourished through its first estate, the 

 Tipula, when it ceases to be a grub, leaves off grubbing after 



* See Vignette. t ' Insect Transformations,' p. 254. 



