NOTES OF OBSERVATIONS 
OF 
INJURIOUS INSECTS. 
REPORT, 1880. 
The season of 1880—as shown by observations from the North- 
East of Ireland, the Isles of Orkney and Mull, and from various' 
localities ranging from the North of Scotland to the South of 
England—has been remarkably suitable for vegetable growth by 
its alternations of dry and sunny weather, with storms or periods of 
rainfall to press on the crops; and from most of the localities where 
the weather has been thus favourable there are also returns of little 
amount of insect injury. The great insect attack of the year has been 
that of the Tipulte larvae, commonly known as Daddy Longlegs grubs. 
There has also been severe damage in some localities from the grub 
of the Carrot Fly and of the Onion Fly; thus showing the chief 
injuries of the season to have been from larvae of the Diptera, that is 
to say of the two-winged flies, which—in the case of the Daddy Long- 
legs—are known to be most prevalent in wet vegetation and in wet 
ground, such as was caused generally throughout the country by the 
continued rains of 1879. 
This attack of the Tipulce was not, however, quite universal. It is 
mentioned by Mr. Service as not occurring to a hurtful extent in the 
neighbourhood of Dumfries, where he notes there was a winter of fine 
weather, followed by a cold and dry spring; and the weather report, 
contributed by Mr. F. Grant Findlay, from meteorological observations 
taken in the same neighbourhood (at Castlemilk, Lockerbie), shows 
the same fine state of the weather in detail. Taking the months of 
January, February, and March, the min. temp, of these (read from 
exposed thermometer) was respectively 12°, 27°, and 21°; the max. 
temp, (read from thermometer protected in shade), respectively 48°, 
48 9 , and 59°. The number of days on which rain fell in the same 
B 
