OF HARTING. 433 



of his loss, must have been noticed by every one. In 

 the perfect state they are incapable of resenting the 

 liberties taken with them, as they are unprovided with 

 any defensive organs, but as larvae they are among 

 the most destructive insects, often committing great 

 havoc underground among the plants in gardens and 

 the grasses in pastures. It is needless to say that 

 they are not very showy insects, but the Pectinated 

 Crane-fly (Ctenophora atrata), an allied species, is 

 gaily ornamented with black and bright yellow, its 

 larvae reside in decaying wood. 



Stratiomys Chameleon, a prettily coloured fly, is 

 often found on our flowers, attracted by their nectar 

 or basking in the sunshine on the leaves of plants 

 in damp localities. Its larva is aquatic, breathing by 

 means of an apparatus similar to that of Ctdex, but it 

 has the additional faculty, when it is disposed to leave 

 the surface, of curving inwards the numerous rays of 

 its caudal fringe, till their points meet in the centre, 

 and enclosing within the cavity thus formed a bubble 

 of air with which it descends. When this is no longer 

 required for respiratory purposes, its buoyancy enables 

 the insect to float passively upwards again for a fresh 

 supply. 



Among the Gad-flies we meet with some of the 

 most sanguinary of our insect tormentors, as they 

 spare neither man nor beast. Tabanus Bovinus, 

 also called the Breese fly, from the buzzing noise of 

 its wings, the usual prelude to its dreaded onslaught 

 on both horses and cattle, is a large fly nearly an inch 

 in length, and as the parts of its mouth are equal in 

 number to those of the gnat, and very much more 

 powerful, the wounds it inflicts are very severe, we 

 have learnt from personal experience that when it is 

 disposed to test the temper of its lancets on the 

 human hand, it is capable of piercing an ordinary kid 

 glove with ease and despatch. We have also often 

 seen horses in that part of the park known as the 



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