DADDY LONGLEGS OR CRANE FLY. 47 



being only three days after the remarkably cold night of Tuesday, the 

 16tli), and was accompanied by specimens of Daddy Longlegs grubs, 

 and of the "Surface" caterpillar of the Great Yellow Underwing 

 Moth, of which also large numbers were destroying a Wheat field in 

 the neighbourhood. 



The next observation was sent me on the 5th of May, from The 

 Meadows, Battle, Sussex, by Mr. H. T. Simmons, and this I give in 

 detail, as it shows the difficulty, even by deep and careful cultivation, 

 of so clearing infested pasture land as to make the ground safe for the 

 following crop. 



Mr. Simmons wrote : — " I am enclosing you some black grubs 

 which I find in large quantities (six in a square yard) in a field drilled 

 with Mangolds. The field was an old pasture field. 



"Before ploughing I broadcasted 5 cwt. salt per acre, it was then 

 ploughed with an American digger, with the skim-coulter on, a sub- 

 soil ran behind, making 14 inches soil moved, 8 in the plough, and 6 

 in the sub-soil. With the Mangold seed I drilled 3 cwt. Rape dust and 

 3 cwt. superphosphate per acre ; a good tilth was made, and rolled 

 down firmly. 



" I found this morning the seed just starting, and these grubs in 

 great numbers, mostly in the drill, where I imagine they are attracted 

 by the Eape dust."— (H. T. S.) 



Various other communications noted some special point of habits, 

 or amount of attack, amongst the enquiries sent. 



From Craven Arms, Shropshire, June 2nd, the grubs were noted as 

 doing considerable damage to a field of Turnips, the grubs being 

 observed to burrow lightly under the soil during the day, but at night 

 to come up and crawl on the surface. (Where this is observed to 

 happen it may be utihzed well by rolling, before the grubs go down 

 again. — Ed.) In this case soot, at the rate of 3^ cwt. per acre, was 

 applied without appreciable results. 



From Northallerton, Yorks, on June 6th, the Daddy Longlegs flies 

 were reported as being " in myriads," and the larvte as causing great 

 havoc in two large fields of Oats on the farm of the writer, and also in 

 the surrounding country. Such of the larvffi as had been seen were 

 apparently full-grown. 



From Abergele, N. Wales, on June 8th, grubs destroying a young 

 Oat crop were noted at a depth of about two inches below the surface. 



From Matlock, Derbyshire, on June lltli, specimens were sent from 

 an Oat field belonging to the reporter, which had been laid down to Clover 

 for four or five years, and had been ploughed up about the 10th or 

 12th of March. " In this field these grubs have taken off the Oats to 

 the extent of 4 or 5 acres, and made the ground as bare as a fallow 

 field." The same observer notes the Daddy Longlegs grubs as having 



