DADDY-LONG-LEGS, CRANE FLIES. 343 



they feed on the roots of cereals and young plants, 

 just below the surface of the ground, hence may 

 become pests. Others are found in the soft decaying 

 wood of tree stumps, or in damp soil. 



The pupa (Plate 42, Fig. 3) is not enclosed in a 

 puparium, but is free. On the body of the pupa 

 there are rows of bristles which enable it to work its 

 way out of the soil, wlien about to change to 

 the adult winged form. It emerges by means of a 

 T slit. We have noticed the tipulids or ''daddy- 

 long-legs" flies resting in enormous numbers on the 

 shrubby she-oaks near the edge of the water at Tug- 

 gerah. Port Hacking, etc. We collected the ''giant" 

 tipulid in moist caves on the Blue Mountains. They 

 are very numerous in nearly all parts of the bush. 



Reaumur thus describes their flight over grass 

 lands : "Although they sometimes Hy a considerable 

 distance when the sun is bright and hot, they gen- 

 erally do not go far; often, indeed, only along the 

 ground, or rather along the top of the grass. Some- 

 times they only use theii- wings to keep them above 

 the level of the herbage, and to take them along. 

 Their legs, particularly the hind ones, are dispropor- 

 tionately large. They are three times the length of 

 the body, and are to these insects what the stilts are 

 to the peasants of marshy and inundated countries, 

 enabling them to pass with ease over the higher 

 blades of grass." 



. Comstock suggests that as the abdomen and the 

 ovipositor are both unusually long, the long legs en- 

 able the insect to use the ovipositor more firmly. 

 **When about to lay her eggs the female stands nearly 



