RAVAGERS OF CROPS 261 



insects by no means confine their depredations 

 solely to grass-land, for in the year 1880, they 

 were responsible for the destruction of hundreds 

 of acres of autumn-sown wheat on the farms 

 round York. 



The general appearance of the Daddy-long- 

 legs is too well known to need description 

 here; the sexes in the adult insect are easily 

 distinguished, the body of the female being 

 slightly longer than that of the male, and 

 terminating in a comparatively sharp-pointed 

 ovipositor. In the autumn the female Daddy- 

 longlegs deposits on the ground, or upon grass 

 and weeds, with the aid of her ovipositor, her 

 minute polished black eggs, from two to three 

 hundred in number, and from these, in about 

 fifteen days, the larvae escape and begin their 

 work of destruction, out of sight, beneath the 

 surface of the soil. Throughout the winter the 

 larvae feed upon the stems of corn and grasses, 

 near the surface if the weather is mild, but going 

 down deeper into the earth and attacking the 

 roots during the periods of frost. In cases of 

 bad infestation I have picked out one hundred 

 and twerity of these larvae from a freshly dug 

 turf-sod about one foot square, which will give 

 some idea of the vast numbers in which these 

 insects appear during some seasons, and the 

 amount of damage they can cause. The larvae 

 when full grown are about an inch to an inch 

 and a half in length, with a cylindrical, somewhat 

 wrinkled, legless body, slightly tapering at the 

 head, and blunt at the tail-end, which bears four 

 tubercles. The colour of the body seems to 



