CHAPTER X. 



Voracity of Caterpillars, Grubs, and Maggots ; concluded. 



MAGGOTS. 



ADHERING to the distinction of terming those larvae 

 which are destitute of feet, maggots, we shall notice 

 here a very destructive one, which is sometimes popu- 

 larly called the grub, and sometimes confounded with 

 the wire worm.* We allude to the larvae of one or two 

 common species of crane flies (Tipulidce], well known 

 by the provincial names of father-long-legs, Jeriny- 

 spinners, and tailors. These insects are so common 

 in some meadows, that, being very shy and fearful of 

 danger, they rise in swarms at every step some of 

 them flying high, others only skipping over the grass, 

 and others running and using their long legs as the 

 inhabitants of marshy countries use stilts, and em- 

 ploying their wings like the ostrich to aid their limbs. 



These flies deposit their eggs in the earth; some- 

 times in grass fields or moist meadows, and some- 

 times in the tilled ground of gardens and farms. 

 For this purpose the female is provided with an ovi- 

 positor well adapted to the operation, consisting of a 

 sort of pincers or forceps of a horny consistence, and 

 sharp at the point. By pressure, as Reaumur says, 

 the eggs may be extruded from this in the same way 

 as the stone can be easily squeezed out of a ripe 

 cherry as in the following figure. 



* See Stickney's Observ. on the grub, 8vo. Hull, 1800. 



