MAGGOTS OP CRANE FLIES. 253 



Ovipositor and eggs of the crane fly (Tipula). 



The eggs are exceedingly small and black, like 

 grains of gunpowder, and each female lays a good 

 many hundreds. The position which she assumes 

 appears somewhat awkward, for she raises herself 

 perpendicularly on her two hind legs, using her ovi- 

 positor as a point of support, and resting with her 

 fore-legs upon the contiguous herbage. She then 

 thrusts her ovipositor into the ground as far as 

 the first ring of her body, and leaves one or more 

 eggs in the hole; and next moves onwards to ano- 

 ther place, but without bringing herself into a hori- 

 zontal position. The maggot, when hatched from 

 the egg, immediately attacks the roots of the grass 

 and other herbage which it finds nearest to it; and 

 of course the portion of the plant above ground 

 withers for lack of nourishment. 



The maggots of this family which seem to do most 

 injury are those of Tipula oleracea and T. cornicina. 

 In the summer of 1828, we observed more than an 

 acre of ground, adjoining the Bishop of Oxford's 

 garden, at Blackheath, as entirely stripped, both of 

 grass and every thing green, as if the turf had been 



VOL. vi. 22 



