

TIPULA. 319 



third externo-medial by a vcinlet whose angle emits the second externo- 

 medial; third externo-inedial inclined rather abruptly towards the hind 

 border, connected by an oblique veinlet with the subanal, which is also 

 bent towards the hind border ; anal and axillary veins complete ; discal 

 areolet pentagonal. Legs long, or very long, generally slender, bare or 

 very minutely pubescent ; coxse short ; tibise with two short spurs ; 

 nngues small. Male. Antenna} longer. Abdomen at the tip obtuse, 

 subclr.vate, with various appendages. Fern. Antennae shorter. Abdo- 

 men at the tip acuminated, with two elongated styles. The ovipositor 

 has two upper and two lower pieces ; the former two sharp, and longer 

 than the lower two, which are blunt. The upper pair forms the auger 

 that bores a hole in the ground, and the lower conducts the eggs into 

 it after it is bored. 



The larvae of most species feed on the roots of grass ; they 

 have two short horns on the head and several fleshy conical ap- 

 pendages at the tip of the abdomen. "The mandibles, which 

 are transverse and nnguiform, do not act against each other, but 

 against two other fixed, internally concave and externally convex 

 and dentated, pieces." The pupa? are naked, rather hard and 

 opake ; they have two respiratory tubes near the head, and the 

 margins of the abdominal segments are furnished with spines, by 

 means of which they rise to the surface of the ground prepara- 

 tory to their assuming the winged state. The long legs are bent 

 into three folds, but the tarsi are extended, and lie close to each 

 other, the fore pair being the shortest. 



" The female of Tipula oleracea, when engaged in laying eggs, 

 moves over the grass with her body in a vertical position by the 

 help her four anterior legs being in the air of her two poste- 

 rior ones and the end of her abdomen, which performs the office 

 of another. When upon the wing its fore legs are placed hori- 

 zontally, pointing forwards, and the four hind ones stretched out 

 in an opposite direction, the one forming the prow and the other 

 the stern of the vessel in its voyage through air. The grubs 

 sometimes destroy hundreds of acres, or whole districts, of grass- 

 land, in England and France. The pupa? may be often seen pro- 

 jecting from the surface of the earth, to which they have made 

 their way from a depth of several inches by a successive wriggling 

 of the abdominal segments, which are furnished with sharp points, 

 admitting a progressive but not a retrograde motion." 



"The female of T. variegata has been observed to lay her eggs 

 thus : Choosing a south bank bare of grass, she stood with her 

 legs stretched out on each side, and kept turning herself half 

 round backwards and forwards alternately. Thus the ovipositor 

 made its way into the hard soil, and deposited her eggs in a se- 



