78 



THE MEADOW MAGGOTS OE LEATHER-JACKETS. 



(Tipida hicornis, Loew, MSS., efc al. ) 

 Order Dipteea. Family Tipulid^e. 



(Plate VI., fig. 4.) 



Few can have failed to notice frequently the large slender- 

 bodied, pale brown flies with excessively long and slender legs, 

 abundant on grass lands in early summer, and very generally 

 known in America as crane-flies; but larvae of these insects are 

 much less frequently seen, and have received practically no at- 

 tention in this country from economic entomologists. By Harris, 

 for example, the Tipulidse are not mentioned in his standard work 

 on "Insects Injurious to Vegetation." In the Missouri Reports* 

 they are barely referred to as "underground vegetable-feeding 

 larvse." In the Reports of the State Entomologists of Illinois they 

 have been mentioned only by Thomas, and by him were not con- 

 sidered as injurious. In Lintner's Reports as State Entomologist 

 of New York they are barely noticed. In Packard's "Guide to 

 the Study of Insects" they are treated only in a general way, and 

 the larvie of the principal genus, Tipula, are said to live in gar- 

 den mold and under moss in fields and woods. In the writings 

 of the U. S. Entomologists, they are referred to only by Glover, 

 who briefly discusses the habits of some of the European species. 

 "In this country, however," he adds, "we do not appear to suffer 

 so much fi'om thl^se insects as in England, where the climate is 

 more moist and the frost is not severe as with uS; and probably, 

 also, our hot, dry summers are not so favorable for their in- 

 crease."t In the "Prairie Farmer" of Chicago for April 6, 18()7, is 

 a brief article on larvie of Tixjulid;e ("Meadow Worms") by Dr. 

 Riley, written in response to an inquiry concerning large numbers 

 of these larva; found crawling upon snow in a meadow. "Thou- 

 sands of them could have been picked up on a rod square." 

 Riley here says that "they may always be found in large num- 

 bers in the fall of the year in the humid grounds of meadows, 

 where they remain a couple of inches below the surface feeding 

 upon the vegetal )le portions of the soil, as also upon the roots of 

 grass. Their numbers are, at times, so immense that they do 



• 2d Rep., p. 



