180 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



high sheep farms in Tweedale were dreadfully infested 

 by a caterpillar, which was probably the larva of this 

 moth ; spots of a mile square were totally covered by 

 them, and the grass devoured to the root =*. 



Most of the insects I have hitherto mentioned attack 

 our crops partially, confining themselves to one or two 

 kinds only; but there are some species which extend 

 their ravages indifferently to all. Of this description is 

 the Fi^ralis ? frumentaliSi which moth, Pallas tells us, is 

 an almost universal pest in the government of Kasan in 

 Russia, often eating the greater part of the spring corn 

 to the root^. To this we are fortunately strangers ; but 

 another, well known by the name of the wire-worm, 

 causes annually a large diminution of the produce of our 

 fields, destroying indiscriminately wheat, rye, oats, and 

 grass '^. This insect, which has its name apparently from 

 its slender form, and uncommon hardness and tough- 

 ness, is the grub of one of the elastic beetles termed by 

 Linne Elater lineatus, but by Bierkander, to whom we 

 are indebted for its history, E. Segctis^, which name is 

 now generally adopted. The late ingenious Mr. Paul of 

 Starston in Norfolk, (well knowni as the inventor of a 

 machine ^ to entrap the turnip-beetle, which may be ap- 

 plied by collectors with great advantage to general pur- 

 poses,) has also succeeded in tracing this insect from the 

 larva to the imago state. His grubs produced Elater 

 obscunts of Mr. Marsham, which however comes so near 

 to E. Segetis that it is doubtful whether it be more than 



=■ Farmer's Mag. iii. 487- 



Pallas's Travels in South Bussia, i. 30. " Plate XVIII. Fig.4. 



^ Marsliam in Communications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412. 



Plate xvlW.Jig. 4. and Litm. Trans, i.x. 60. ' Plate XXIV. Fig. 3. 



