158 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, 



The preceding grub may occasionally be found in 

 shallow ditches, and about the edges of ponds, in 

 summer; but a remarkable larva, with a very dif- 

 ferent apparatus for breathing, is much more common 

 in similar situations, and also in the open drains from 

 dunghills, &c. The latter is the maggot of a two- 

 winged, bee-like fly [Helophihis pcndulus, Meigen), 

 and trom its shape is appropriately termed rat-tailed 

 by Reaumur. The tail is the part of the grub which 

 most merits attention, being formed somewhat after the 

 telescopic model of the ovipositor of the breeze flies,* 



Telescopic-tailed water larvse. «, a glass vessel of water containing 

 tlie larva!, natural size, b, niagnifieil view of tlie tail, witli the breatli- 

 ing tube partially contracted, c, a still more enlarged view of the tail. 



* iiee Insect Architecture, p. 403. 



