40 Insect Life : Its Why and Wherefore 
destroy me, protect those birds that are 
my enemies, plough your land deeply 
and bury me. Do not spare good natural 
manures though they are my death. Drain 
your land. No matter that there will be 
no place for my species to continue ; I 
die, but your land will be more productive 
and more valuable. 
There is one relative of our old familiar 
friend that possesses a very peculiar trait 
— the grub is able to remain at the bottom 
of a sheet of water while it thrusts its very 
long tail to the surface to act as a breathing 
apparatus. When it reaches the pupal state 
this useful bronchial appendage is quite 
done away with, but instead of it another, 
quite as long, sprouts out at the other 
end. Many queer habits and customs 
belong to the great daddy-long-legs race 
in different parts, as with the varied 
branches of the great human family. 
There is an old Italian proverb, “ Sempre 
il mal non viene per nuocere ” — a broad 
interpretation of which is, what is to us as 
an apparent ill does not always come to do 
us harm. Perhaps this is somewhat true of 
the naughty offshoots of dear old Daddy. 
