730 



FAMl LY XXXVI I . KLATERID.E. 



The larva is one of the smaller injurious wire 

 worms, often doing much damage to corn and 

 wheat. It is of a light waxy yellow color, nine 

 to 12 mm. in length, sparsely hairy and consid- 

 erably flattened in form; the last segment is 

 nearly flat, rugose above, without bristle-bearing 

 tubercles and with an acute apical notch. (Fig. 

 282 a.) It attacks sprouting corn and wheat, 

 especially that planted on sod, eating part of the 

 softened grain and boring up into the tender 

 stem. No effective remedy has yet been discov- 

 ered, though fall plowing for corn will greatly 

 lessen their numbers. 



I), aiiHiliilis Lee., color of elegant, length 3 

 mm., is recorded from Maryland, Ohio and 

 Texas. 



M <<!<([>< nt In* linibalis Herbst, black, disk of 

 thorax (in great part) and sides of elytra red- 

 dish-yellow. length 8-11 mm., occurs in the 

 Middle and Southern States and has been re- 

 corded from Cincinnati. 



XXVIII. LUDIUS Esch. 1829. (Gr., "a stage 



player or gladiator.") 



Large black or dark reddish-brown Elaters, 

 having the prosternal sutures concave on the outer side; tarsi 

 simple, pubescent beneath; hind coxal plates less suddenly dilated 

 on inner side and strongly toothed at insertion of the thighs; sec- 

 ond and third antennal joints always small, third a little shorter 

 than second, the two together shorter than fourth, the terminal 

 joint suddenly narrower near apex, presenting the appearance of a 

 false joint. (Fig. 3, No. 1.) For a synopsis of the genus see 

 LeConte. Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., XII, 1884, 45-40. 



Fig. 282a. 



X S. 

 (After Forbes.) 



1302 (4271). LUDIUS ATTENUATUS Say, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., I, ISiT,, 



257; ibid. I, 302; II, GOO. 



Elongate, moderately robust, gradually narrower behind the middle 

 Dark reddish-brown or black, feebly shining, clothed with very fine silky 

 pubescence; thorax usually reddish with elytra black. Thorax as long as 

 wide, or longer in the male, gradually narrower from base to apex, sides 

 feebly curved; hind angles rather short, strongly carinate; disk coarsely 

 but not densely punctate. Elytra not wider than thorax, rapidly narrowing 

 to apex, tips acute ; surface obsoletely substriate, densely and rather roughly 

 punctate. Cavity of mesosternum into which prosternal spine fits with sides 

 parallel and elevated. Length 14-22 mm. 



