76 LONDON INSECTS 



she will reach out one of the hind pair of her six long 

 legs and clear the opening out, and deliberately, in the 

 most comical manner, grasp the points with her foot 

 and pinch and shake them into place again. 



The female, when the eggs are laid, is a miserable- 

 looking ' shotten herring,' back and front plates almost 

 meeting, and probably does not live very long after- 

 wards. Certainly towards dusk one may see hundreds 

 of males under the trees in Kensington Gardens, but 

 has often to look some time before finding a single 

 female. 



The larvae of Daddy Longlegs feed on the roots of 

 grass ; they are hatched underground, unlike the Gnats, 

 also 'two winged/ which are, as every one knows, 

 hatched on water. 



The duty in life of vast numbers of the families of 

 two-winged insects, as, indeed, of most other insects, is 

 to clear away what is most offensive in dead matter, and 

 the way in which they have been fitted for the work is 

 beyond measure marvellous. 



Speaking of the Maggots the larvae of the common 

 Blow-fly Professor Owen, lecturing in the theatre of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons neither the man nor 

 the place for random statements said : ' Insignificant 

 indeed do these larvae seem to be in the scale of nature. 

 Yet Linnaeus used no exaggeration when he said that 

 three flesh flies would devour the carcass of a horse as 

 quickly as would a lion. The assimilative power is so 

 great in the Meat Maggot that it will increase its own 

 weight 200 times in twenty-four hours.' 



