126 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



of these insects to good account, has succeeded in 

 distilling an excellent lamp-oil from their bodies, 

 and offers tenpence a bushel for them. From 

 seventeen bushels he extracted twenty-eight quarts 

 of good oil ! In Hungary, a kind of grease is 

 obtained from them which is useful for carriage 

 wheels. The ingenuity of man may thus even 

 procure good out of a very formidable evil, 

 although the mischief done by the cockchafer 

 larva undoubtedly far exceeds the benefit it con- 

 fers upon its captors in the amount of oil extracted 

 from it. 



An insect almost equally familiar to all persons 

 is the long-legged gnat, of whom the famous 

 children's rhyme runs : 



" ' Old father long-legs' would not say his prayers ; 

 Take him by the left leg and throw him down stairs." 



Many of our farmers would be glad, no doubt, 

 if taking him by the left leg would keep him out 

 of their meadows, for there this insect commits 

 fearful ravages in the larva form. In some parts 

 of England it has as completely destroyed the 

 pasture-grass as if it had been consumed by fire. 

 In the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of 

 pasture in the rich district of Sunk Island in Hoi- 



