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blossoms of fruit trees in the Pacific North-west, and Fletcher has 

 reported (1892) similar depredations by the adults of two other species, 

 Corymhites caricinus, Germ., and C. tarsalis, Melsh. The forms attacking 

 cereal and forage crops are exclusively subterranean, with the single 

 exception of Monocrepidius vespertimis, F., which Kelly found injuring 

 wheat at Wellington, Kan., by boring in the hollow of the stems and 

 not among the roots. In some regions, where these pests are numerous, 

 it is customary to sow three or four times the amount of seed that 

 would normally be necessary in order to get a good crop. Several 

 hundred species of Elateridae occur in North America. They vary 

 enormously in their habits and some forms {Alaus, Elater, Adelocera, 

 etc.) live in dead or rotten wood. Alatis has also been recorded as 

 boring in solid wood, though this is doubtful ; other species live under 

 moss {Sericosomus). A number of species abomid in heavy peat soil 

 filled with humus {Melanotus, Agriotes. etc.), while some prefer well- 

 drained soils (Corymhites), and still others {Horistonotus) are most 

 destructive on high sandy land which is very poor in humus. Many 

 wireworms have been recorded as predaceous {Alaus, Hemirhipus, 

 Adelocera, etc.). Pyrophorns luminosus, 111., the large limiinous 

 Elaterid of the West Indies, is said to be a decidedly beneficial insect, 

 as it feeds on the Lachnostenia larvae in the sugar-cane fields. The 

 introduction of this insect into the southern United States as a natural 

 enemy of Lachnosterna is not improbable. Most of the wireworms 

 common in the United States oviposit on sod or very weedy land, 

 but species of Corymhites in the dry-farming country of the Pacific 

 Noith-west are severe pests on land that has been seeded to wheat, 

 by the summer fallow method, for the past 15 years ; as this land 

 was originally sage-brush prairie, it probably never was in sod. Several 

 distinct species of true wireworms are pests in the United States, and 

 since they vary more or less in their life-histories, a variation in control 

 is required. It is therefore necessary to determine the identity of the 

 w^ireworm, and to meet this necessity each species of economic 

 importance is treated separately in this paper, and its description, 

 life-history, food-plants and control measures given. The following 

 species are dealt with : Agriotes niamms, Say (the wheat wireworm) 

 Horistonotus uhlerii, Horn (the corn and cotton wireworm), Corymhites 

 injiatus, Say (the inflated wireworm), C. noxius, Hyslop (the dry-land 

 wireworm), and the com wireworms, Melanotus communis, Gyl., 

 M. fissilis. Say, and M. crihulosus, Lee. Mention is also made of 

 Corymhites cylindriformis, Hbst., as occurring in enormous numbers in 

 lucerne and wheat fields about Hagerston, Md., in the spring of 1914. 

 In Europe, the habits of Corymhites pectinicornis, L., C. castaneus, L., 

 C.siaelandicus, Mull., C.aeneus, F., and C. latus, F., have been recorded 

 by Schiodte and Perris. A number of wireworms, though not serious 

 pests to cereal and forage crops over extensive areas, are, during 

 certain seasons, very destructive in restricted localities. Those 

 belonging to the genus Limonius are among the most important of 

 this group and include Limonius confusus, Lee. (the confused wireworm), 

 and L. calif amicus, Mann, (the sugar-beet wireworm). Owing to the 

 confusion of Cryptohypnus ablneviatus. Say (the abbreviated wireworm), 

 with Drasterius elegans, F., the literature relating to either of these 

 insects is very unreliable. D. elegans has been noted as predaceous 

 and as being a pest of crops, but the author thinks it possible that the 



