THE WHEAT-FLY. 107 



resembling size and figure, but much more gaily coloured. 

 One of these* sports, instead of the sober russet-grey of 

 Father Longlegs, an extremely handsome uniform of black and 

 orange-yellow, black-tipped wings, and plumed antennae of 

 imposing length and beauty. This, with others of the more 

 distinguished few of the Lougleg family, is only likely to be 

 met with singly, sporting beside woods and hedgerows, never 

 in troops over grassy meadows ; and even their grubs, with 

 birth-places less lowly than the common herd, generally first 

 see the darkness, not in subterranean vaults underground, but 

 in the hollow chambers of decaying trees. 



There is a certain little fly, with a bright orange- coloured 

 body, rounded and fringed wings, and feathered antennae, 

 belonging to the Longieg family, but compared with which the 

 " Father " of it is a perfect giant. As with his Robin Hood 

 relative, the rapacious propensities of this Little John are all 

 exercised in early life the period, namely, of his grubhood- 

 when he " sows his wild oats '' by committing excesses on our 

 cultivated crops of wheat. While these are yet in bloom he 

 revels on the pollen of the florets, and leaves, in the deficient 

 or withered grain, serious tokens of his destructive presence. 



So extensive, in a multiplied form, are the injurious opera- 

 tions of this tiny midge, that he and his companions in 

 mischief have acquired general notoriety, under the name of 

 " the Wheat-fly." t 



* Ctenophora ornata. t Cecidomyia Tritici, Kirby. 



VOL. III. H 



