{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 





The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 2>7''\ 1915 [January 



EDITORIAL. 



A FEW weeks ago it was reported to us that the inhabitants 

 of a certain district in Perthshire had been seriously alarmed 

 by an invasion — not of Germans, but of an immense 

 number of small worm-like creatures which crawled over the 

 roads near the houses in such numbers as to make walking 

 decidedly unpleasant. Examples of the creature were 

 brought to us, and were recognised as " leather-jackets " — 

 otherwise the larvae of Tipula oleracea, the commonest species 

 of Crane-fly. A propos of this infestation, we note with 

 interest a paper on the biology of the grub recently published 

 in a French scientific journal^ and summarised in the 

 October issue of the Reviezv of Applied Entomology (Series 

 A). The observations were made by P. Desol in the 

 meadows of Avesnois, and as the summary referred to is 

 short we reproduce it in full for the benefit of our readers. 

 " In the spring of 1914, circular patches of from 15 to 60 feet 

 in diameter, or the entire areas of meadows, were to be seen 

 covered with yellow and dead grass, the roots of which were 

 found to be full of the earth-coloured larvae of Tipnla oleracea. 

 Grasses and clovers are chiefly attacked, while plants with 

 thick or hard roots are not affected. Where the infested 



' Conipt. Rend. Sac. Biol., Paris, Ixxvii., No. 21, 19th June 1914, 

 pp. 126-127. 



37 A 



32498 



