FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



suddenly a little more than straightened, causing the beetle 

 to bounce into the air. The body is kept from bending 

 too far ventrally by a spine on the hind edge of the pro- 

 sternum. The antennas fit, when at rest, in grooves in the 

 prosternum. Most of the species are brown or black and 

 of medium or small size. The larvae are commonly called 

 Wire-worms. They are long, narrow, cylindrical, hard- 

 shelled, brownish or yellowish-white creatures. Some 

 live in the ground, feeding on the roots of grasses and 

 other plants; some, especially the larvae of the snapless 

 Eucneminae, live in dead wood and under bark; and some, 

 at least, are predaceous. 



Two species occur in the Northeast (and 

 elsewhere) but oculatus (Plate LXXVII) 

 is the more common. The black-and-white adult flies 

 throughout the season. The larva, which lives in decayed 

 trunks of apple and other trees, reaches a length of nearly 

 2.5 inches. Lugger concluded that this larva "largely 

 subsists upon other insects" as all that he kept in decaying 

 wood soon died if they were not provided with living in- 

 sects, "which were soon discovered by these cannibals and 

 devoured." If this be so, it is curious that my ops is found 

 only in pine, for we w r ould expect that it would be predace- 

 ous also and so not particular as to woods. The adult 

 myops averages somewhat smaller than oculatus and the 

 eye-like spots are not only narrower and smaller but their 

 gray margins are indistinct. 



In the South, there are Elaterids which have a pair of 

 very luminous spots on the pronotum. Several years ago 

 some enterprising individual secured a large number of the 

 Cuban Pyroplwrus noctilucus and sold living specimens 

 at Coney Island. They were probably purchased as 

 curiosities but, in the tropics, ladies wear them as orna- 

 ments. 



The following United States species occur at least in the 

 Northeast and have relatively conspicuous characters 

 which help in their identification, but which should not 

 be considered conclusive. 



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