"86 



FAMILY XXXVIl. ELxVTERID.l^.. 



The larva is one of the smaller injurious wire 

 worms, often doino- much damage to corn and 

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

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

 ei'ahly tlattened in form; tlie last segment is 

 nearly tlat, rugose above, without bristle-hearing 

 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. 



D. amaJ)iUs Lee, color of rlfgans, length 3 

 mm., is recorded from Maryland, Ohio and 

 Texas. 



Megapenthcs UrnhaUs Herl)st, black, disk of 

 thorax (in great part) and sides of elj^tra red- 

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

 Middle and Southern States and has been re- 

 cor<led from Cincinnati. 



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

 player or gladiator.") 

 Large black or dark reddish-l)rown Elaters, 

 having the i)rosternal 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.—Trm-ifi. Amer. Ent. Soc, XII, 1884, 45-49. 



1302 (4271). LuDius attenuatus Say, Ann. Lye. Nat, Hist, N. Y., I, 1825, 

 257; ibid. I, 392; II, GOO. 

 Elon.cate, 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, graduall.y narrower from base to apex, sides 

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

 but not densely punctate. p]lytra not wider than thorax, rapidly narrowing 

 to a]iex, tips acute; surface obsoletely suhstriate, densely and rather roughly 

 punctate. Cavit.v of mesosternnm into which prosternal spine fits with sides 

 |,iarallel and elevated. Length 14-23 hito. 



