OF INJURIOUS INS3CTS. 
11 
point of observation. Mr. McDonald, writing from Kirkwall, Orkney, 
mentions the grub of the Crane Fly being little noticed during spring 
in the neighbourhood. He observes that when the months of May and 
June are cold and wet this grub is often very destructive to the field 
crops, but less so on light land and in warm weather, conjecturally 
from its more rapid development. Deep digging in winter and keeping 
the ground well stirred are found to be good preventives, and also the 
application of seaweed as a manure, before the ground is ploughed, 
this insect appearing to have a great dislike to anything of a salt 
nature. At Dalkeith the Crane Fly was comparatively scarce. 
Mr. Service observes that at those spots in the neighbourhood of 
Maxwelltown, Dumfries, where the Crane Fly was so destructive in 
187S, it was scarcely noticeable this season, whilst in others in the 
same locality it was present to a most injurious extent. According to 
report grub-worms had been counted at the rate of twelve, and even 
up to twenty-four, per square foot; and this insect is considered by 
Mr. Service as without doubt the worst pest of the district. At 
Scotswood-on-Tyne, in Northumberland, also, these grubs were very 
injurious. Mr. Herbert Grace mentions that in some places the Corn 
was entirely destroyed by them ; and in July and August the “Daddies ” 
swarmed in the long grass, Wherever the grub occurred it was 
amongst Corn grown after “ lea,” and it was in the greatest numbers on 
heavy land. At Tranmere, Cheshire, Mr. Willoughby Gardner 
mentions that he never remembers the Crane Flies occurring in such 
numbers before: the perfect insects were most numerous the second 
week in August, when the noise they made buzzing about in swarms 
was distinctly audible in the fields. Mr. W. R. Scowcroft, writing 
from Latliom, Ormskirk, Lancashire, a district noted for its Potato 
crops, mentions that the Tipula larvae attacked the Potatoes severely, 
eating through the stems. The larvae were in such numbers that on 
one farm women and lads were employed to collect the grub, at so 
much a quart. The country round Ormskirk is flat, and the ground 
having been several times flooded this season has probably made it 
attractive to this damp-loving insect. The unusual quantity of Tipula 
round Brecon is mentioned by Mrs. Garnons Williams, of Abercamlais, 
as the great insect feature of the year. The larvae of Tipula maculosa — 
small, light-coloured, and softer, as compared with the Leather Jackets, 
the larvae of Tipula oleracea —are noted by Mr. Fitch as very destructive, 
in a nine-acre field of his at Maldon, to Wheat after Red Clover. In 
April he had the Charlock (,Sinapis arvensis ) pulled, and the soil being 
wet and tenacious much was adherent to the fibrous roots, and the 
quantities of small Tipula, larvae exposed were enormous. In this 
