90 



Obsey^vations on the various Insects 



drawn up and at rest look like small Bots. From the beginning 

 of May to the first week in August I have observed these larvae 

 at the roots of scarlet beans, lettuces, beet, and potatoes, and 

 during the same period they are most unwelcome visitors in the 

 flower-garden, where they commit dreadful ravages amongst the 

 roots of dahlias, carnations, Sec., and even the grass-plots in the 

 metropolis do not escape, for in Golden-square a few years 

 since the grass was laid bare by them. It is said they come out 

 at night in multitudes to feed, and probably to remove from one 

 locality to another when food becomes short, or it may be in 

 search of convenient places to change into pupae; at all events 

 they are then secure from the rooks and smaller birds, which 

 would speedily thin their ranks, and the dews of night suit their 

 purpose in every way better than the light and heat of day. Some 

 of the forwardest change to pupae early in August, perhaps in 

 July, and certainly in September ; this takes place under the 

 turf, and even by the sides of gravel walks, if the weeds be left 

 to grow : they are as long and thick as the larvae, of a similar 

 dirty colour, with 2 slender horns, one on each side of the head ; 

 the segments under the belly produce transverse rows of stout 

 spines, and smaller ones on the back, the tail is pointed and 

 spiny ; on each side of the trunk are the cases containing the 

 wings, and between them those which enclose the legs (fig. 37). 

 After remaining in this state a short time, the pupa, by means 

 of these spiny rings, works its way through the surface of the 

 earth, the horny covering of the trunk splits down the back, and 

 the gnat crawls forth to dry its wings and harden its limbs, before 

 it takes flight to pair and generate new families. At this time 

 thousands of empty cases may be seen sticking half out of the 

 earth amongst the grass. 



The Crane-flies belong to the Order Diptera, the Family 

 Tipulid^e, and the Genus Tipula.* The species before us 

 was named by Linnaeus 



21. T. oleracea, from its larva injuring cabbages. It is of a 

 tawny colour, with a bloom over it, giving the fly a dusty appear- 

 ance. The head is small, almost globose, attached by a short 

 slender neck, the nose forming a stoutish rostrum or beak, acu- 

 minated at the apex, and furnished with a short, fleshy, bilobed 

 lip, and 2 longish 5-jointed palpi ; the eyes are hemispherical 

 and black ; the 2 slender horns are inserted in the face, they are 

 as long as the entire head, tapering, and 13-jointed, the 1st 

 longish, 2nd globose, the remainder elongated and bristly ; f 

 trunk large, oval, raised considerably above the head, divided 

 into 3 lobes on the back, which is brownish with obscure stripes : 



* Curtis's Guide, Genus 1160. 



t Vide Curtis's Brit. Ent., fol. and pi. 493, for the dissections. 



