DADDY-LONG-LEGS 221 



they increase in size they burrow an inch or so into the 

 ground among the grass roots. There are two broods, 

 one in spring and a more abundant one in August and 

 September. The grubs have no legs. Insect grubs are 

 often legless, as, for instance, the maggots or " gentles " 

 of bluebottle-flies. Or they are provided with short 

 legs, as, for instance, are the " caterpillars " or grubs of 

 moths and butterflies. The grubs of the crane-fly 

 (Fig. 22, B) show eleven rings or segments to the body, 

 and have a tough grey or brownish skin, which is so firm 

 as to give them the name of " leather-jackets." They 

 have a head provided with a pair of short, strong 

 mandibles or jaws, and a very short pair of feelers 

 (antennae). These grubs grow to be an inch and a half 

 long, and are two-thirds the thickness of a common 

 quill pen. They gnaw with their hard jaws the young 

 shoots and roots of grass, and do an enormous amount 

 of damage to grassland. They are rarely seen except 

 when a sod is lifted, but in late spring and summer, 

 when the grub changes to a motionless pupa or chrysalis, 

 they may be seen protruding for about a third of their 

 length from the surface amidst the grass tufts. Birds eat 

 them and rooks dig with their beaks into the sod in order 

 to pull them out, leaving a number of small pits (on the 

 golf links) where they have been at work. The proper 

 name of these injurious grubs is " leather-jackets." 

 They are often confused with another grass-and-wheat 

 pest, the " wire-worm," and are in consequence sometimes 

 called " false wire-worms." The " wire- worm " is the 

 grub of a beetle (Fig. 22, C and D), and is very different 

 in appearance and history from the " leather-jacket," 

 though both of them do great damage to grass and to 

 grain crops. 



The common crane-fly, or daddy-long-legs, is called 



