INSECTS. 



171 



those of Tipula paludosa. The two last-named 

 species are very much like one another; grey or 

 greyish brown with bright brown wings, having dark 

 front margin. Much is still unknown about the 

 habits of " crane flies " ; my researches relate to the 

 Yellow-spotted Crane Fly {Tipula maculosa). The 

 adults fly about in swarms during summer, usually 

 from the beginning of June, in the flelds where the 

 larv£e lived in spring. They lay their eggs either in 

 the same fields or (usually) in others, and are blown 



Fig. 113. — The Daddy Longlegs, or Common Crane Fly (^Tipula oleracea), 

 male and the maggot ; right, the female and the pupa. 



Left, the 



about for long distances by the wind. Where the 

 flies settle they lay each time two or three black 

 ovoid eggs, bent like a sickle, and repeat this till all 

 the eggs (200 to 250) are laid. Those fields which 

 have previously been grass land are the most infested 

 by the crane flies. The larvae are headless, grey to 

 lead coloured, with small prickles at the hinder end 

 of the body, and they first appear, in large numbers, 

 under the pieces of turf which are left behind in such 

 fields, and which appear to be the centres from which 



