THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 187 



No sooner had I examined one of my friend's sleepy pears, 

 and turned out a few of the unwelcome and withal rather 

 repulsive tenants, than I was convinced they were the larvae 

 of a dipteron. They were of an ivory whiteness and very 

 shining, totally without legs, and gradually attenuated 

 towards the head, wliich was furnislied with two minute 

 hooks or falcate mandibles, and had also something like a 

 corneous plate on the last segment. As soon as exposed on 

 a sheet of white paper, each larva formed itself into a ring, 

 attaching its mandibles to the anal plate, and, after remaining 

 in this state for two or three seconds, it suddenly relaxed its 

 hold, and thus appeared to make an attempt to leap after the 

 manner of the cheese-maggot. All its efforts in this direction 

 were, however, abortive, being confined to a spasmodic jerk, 

 which produced no further results. 



My next object was to observe the natural escape of a full- 

 fed maggot, an occurrence for which I long waited in vain, 

 but was gratified at last, having one evening, on my return 

 home from business, the good fortune to detect one in the 

 very act of emergence. The operation was brief, and the 

 escaped maggot, having fallen on some withered pear-leaves, 

 soon concealed itself among them. On turning over these 

 leaves a fortnight afterwards, I found no less than sixteen pale 

 brown pupae, each about the size and shape of a small grain of 

 wheat ; they appear as though turned in a lathe, and clearly 

 exhibit eleven transverse lines, dividing the body into twelve 

 compartments or segments, the last of which is evidently 

 again divided, having a very small cup-shaped segment at 

 the extremity : the 1st and 12th segments are decidedly 

 smaller than the others; the 2ud and 11th are rather larger 

 than these, and the remainder are of nearly equal size, and 

 form a series of very evident rings, each of which becomes, 

 loosened and semi-detached when the imago is ready to 

 escape. 



Notwithstanding this general loosening of the segments 

 from each other, the point of dehiscence is almost invariably 

 between the 5lh and 6th segments ; the fly in its struggle to 

 escape forces off the anterior segments, and these still 

 remain attached together, forming a kind of cup : in some 

 instances this cup becomes totally disconnected and falls 

 off"; in others it remains attached, and hangs as by a hinge, 



