10 The Bulletin, 



It is believed that this arrangement will be of use to those who are 

 interested in learning how to recognize the different orders of insects, 

 and to all readers who wish to make their knowledge exact. 



•&'■ 



INSECT ENEMIES OF CORN. 



WIRE-WORMS (Several Species), Order Coleoptem. Family Elateridce. 

 (Also sometimes called "Drill-wonn.") 



Description. — Slender, smooth, firm-bodied, yellowish-brown worms 

 (larvae), attaining length of one to two inches, which destroy the corn 

 by eating the seed before it comes up, or by eating roots, or into the 

 stalk just below the surface of the ground, causing the center of the 

 growing part to die. The adult insect is a "Jack-snapper." 



Injury in North Carolina.— Anj insect which does its work under- 

 ground is not likely to attract attention except in cases of serious in- 

 jury; hence the complaints made of these pests cannot be an adequate 

 measure of the damage done by them. It is quite certain, also, that 

 farmers often confuse injury by Wii-e-worms with that done by bud- 

 worms, so that what is attributed to one may in reality be due to the 

 other. 



From the letters of complaint which have come to us in regard to 

 Wire-worms, we give the following quotations, all of which throw some 

 light on the nature or extent of damage or the habits of the insects : 



"It gets in the root of the corn and kills it at any age from time it comes 

 up until a foot high. In a 20-acre field I believe they have killed 14 per cent, 

 and are still killing. They do most damage in lowlands." 



"A yellow worm works in the roots and kills the corn in low wet land." 



"Very destructive to corn on black lowlands. They attack the corn from 

 the root and go up the pith and kill it entirely." 



"Destroying the corn in this coimty before it gets out of the ground ; my 

 bottom-land is thoroughly infested. Many of my neighbors are in the same 

 position as I am." 



"Damaging corn in meadow after sod." 



"Present by the bushel in a piece of my land this year." 



It is not to be inferred that Wire- worms attack only corn. They feed 

 on roots of many plants, also on seeds and tubers. One correspondent 

 sent an irish potato which had been bored through and through by them. 

 Some feed mainly of exclusively in decaying vegetation, rotting wood, 

 etc. In this State they are a recognized tobacco pest. 



While on a tour through the Piedmont counties to inspect wheatfields 

 in the middle of April (1905), the writer several times noted more or 

 less injury to wheat by Wire-worms. No doubt corn sown on similar 

 land suffered in the same way, only in greater degree, since the number 



