MAGGOTS OF CRANE-FLIES. 253 



Ovipositor and eggs of the crane-fly (Ttptila). 



The eggs are exceedingly small and black, like 

 grains of gunpowder, and each female lays a good 

 many hundreds. The position which she assumes 

 appears somewhat awkward, for she raises herself 

 perpendicularly on her two hind-legs, using her ovi- 

 positor as a point of support, and resting with her 

 fore-legs upon the contiguous herbage. She then 

 thrusts her ovipositor into the ground as far as the 

 first ring of her body, and leaves one or more eggs in 

 the hole ; and next moves onwards to another place, 

 but without bringing herself into a horizontal position. 

 The maggot, when hatched from the egg, immediately 

 attacks the roots of the grass and other herbage which 

 it finds nearest to it ; and of course the portion of 

 the plant above ground withers for lack of nourish- 

 ment. 



The maggots of this family which seem to do most 

 injury are those of Tipula oleracea and T. cornicina. 

 In the summer of 1828 we observed more than an 

 acre of ground, adjoining the Bishop of Oxford's 

 garden at Blackheath, as entirely stripped, both of 



Q 



