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Chapter X. 



Voracity of Caterpillars, Grubs, and Maggots — concluded. 



Maggots. 



Adhering to the distinction of terming those larvaB 

 which are destitute of feet, maggots^ we shall notice 

 here a very destructive one, which is sometimes popu- 

 larly called the grub, and sometimes confounded with 

 the wire-worm.* We allude to the larvaj of one or 

 two common species of crane-flies {TipulidcB), well 

 known by the provincial names of father-long-legs, 

 Jenny-spinners, and tailors. These insects are so 

 common in some meadows, that, being very shy and 

 fearful of danger, they rise in swarms at every step 

 — some of them flying high, others only skipping 

 over the grass, and others running and using their 

 long legs as the inhabitants of marshy countries use 

 stilts, and employing their wings, like the ostrich, to 

 aid their limbs. 



These flies deposit their eggs in the earth ; some- 

 times in grass fields or moist meadows, and sometimes 

 in the tilled ground of gardens and farms. For this 

 purpose the female is provided with an ovipositor well 

 adapted to the operation, consisting of a sort of pin- 

 cers or forceps of a horny consistence, and sharp at 

 the point. By pressure, as Reaumur says, the eggs 

 may be extruded from this in the same way as the 

 stone can be easily Svqueezed out of a ripe cherry, as 

 in the following figure. 



* See Stick iiey^s Observ. on the Grub, 8\'0. Hull, 1800. 



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