24lS 



MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



in many cases require the replanting of the corn for the second or even 

 the third time. These wireworms cause more damage to the corn 

 when first planted and to the young plant than all other corn insects 

 combined. Almost invariably when the corn fails to come up it is due 

 to the attack of wireworms, and in most cases when the corn has appeared 

 above ground for a foot or less and then withers and dies it is also due 

 to the attack of wireworms. 



The adult beetles lay their eggs in grass fields early in spring and 

 the larvae (which are known as the wirewormis) feed upon the roots 

 of the grass. They are long, narrow, cylindrical, hard, glossy insects, 

 tapering abruptly at both ends, usually of a brownish or yellowish-brown 

 color, and with very few hairs. Figure 6 represents one of these larvae, 

 magnified four diameters. They may exist in the grass without any 

 particular notice, frequently as many as twelve of these insects being 

 in a spadeful of sod, and yet not causing any appreciable damage to 

 the same. They will be found feeding upon the roots of all kinds of 

 grasses, either in the field, or along fences, or in out-of-the-way places. 

 This corn wireworm requires two years to complete its life cycle, the 

 larvae hibernating in the ground around the roots of the grass during 

 the first winter, beginning to feed in the following spring as soon as warm 

 weather arrives, then transforming to pupae in the ground along in July 



Fig. 7.— A f'omnion WIroworm, Drnslcriim clrf/ans ; Lnrva raugniOcd seven di- 

 ameters; adult beetle magulticd sevcu oiid one-half diameters. 



