50 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



being pressed downwards over the lip. The body is slender and 

 almost cylindrical, of a deep chestnut-brown color, rendered gray, 

 however, by the numerous short yellowish hairs with which it is 

 covered ; the thorax is of moderate length, not much narrowed 

 before, convex above, with very long and sharp-pointed hinder 

 angles, and in certain lights has a brassy hue ; the wing-covers 

 are finely punctured, and have very slender impressed longitudinal 

 hnes upon them ; the claws^ are not toothed beneath. This 

 beetle usually measures from four to five tenths of an inch in 

 length ; but the females frequently greatly exceed these dimen- 

 sions, and, being much more robust, with a more convex thorax, 

 were supposed by Mr. Say to belong to a different species, named 

 by him brevicornis, the short-horned. The larvae are not yet 

 known to me ; but I have strong reasons for thinking that they 

 live in the ground upon the roots of the perennial grasses and 

 other herbaceous plants. 



Although above sixty different kinds of spring-beetles are now 

 known to inhabit Massachusetts, I shall add to the foregoing a 

 description of only one more species. This is the Elater [Agri- 

 otes) obesus of Say. It is a short and thick beetle, as the specific 

 name implies ; its real color is a dark brown, but it is covered 

 with dirty yellowish gray hairs, which on the wing-covers are 

 arranged in longitudinal stripes ; the head and thorax are thickly 

 punctured, and the wing-covers are punctured in rows. Its 

 length is about three tenths of an inch. This beetle closely re- 

 sembles one of the kinds, which, in the grub state, is called the 

 wire-worm in Europe, and possibly it may be the same. This 

 circumstance should put us on our guard against its depredations. 

 It is found in April, May, and June, among the roots of grass, on 

 the under-side of boards and rails on the ground, and sometimes 

 also on fences. 



The utility of a knowledge of the natural history of insects in 

 the practical arts of life was never more strikingly and triumphantly 

 proved than by Linnaeus himself, who, while giving to natural 

 science its language and its laws, neglected no opportunity to 

 point out its economical advantages.* On one occasion this great 



* Seethe preface to Smith's " Introduction to Botany," and Pultenej's" View of 

 the Writings of Linnaeus" for several examples, one of which it may not be amiss 



