London Insects. 135 



abruptly without any spike or if anything else 

 happens to prevent them from shutting comfort- 

 ably, 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 miser- 

 able-looking " shotten herring," back and front plates 

 almost meeting, and probably does not live very long 

 afterwards. 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 everyone 

 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 larva 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, " Insigni- 

 ficant 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 assi- 

 milative power is so great in the meat maggot that 

 it will increase its own weight 200 times in 24 

 hours." 



It is not easy to say which is most astounding, the 



