LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 



25 



HABITS OF THE OLDER WIRE WORMS. 



While these wireworms were being collected in the fields there was 

 a good opportunity to observe their feeding habits and their actions 

 after emerging from hibernation. As the soil was wet to the surface 

 by the intermittent rains, it was easy for the wireworms to reach the 

 old beets which were scattered around on top of the ground. As 

 the larvje had just 

 emerged from hiber- 

 nation they fed ex- 

 tensively, with the 

 result that whenever 

 several wirewoi'ms 

 attacked a beet root 

 it was soon honey- 

 combed with their 

 channels. !Many of 

 the wu'e worms noted 

 wei"e buried far more 

 than their own length 

 i n t h e haK-rotted 

 beets. 



These larvre are 

 carnivorous on occa- 

 sions (see fig. 6), even 

 under field conditions ; 



eSDeciallv is this so Fig. C— Asugar-V)eetwi^ewo^ndevollriIlgoneofitso\vnkmd•,toillus- 

 , . - . , tratc cannibalistic habit. (Original.) 



during the early 



period when they are feeding most busil}^, and wlien at the same time 

 they tend to be crowded. Under average field conditions, however, 

 cannibalism is unimportant from an economic standpoint, as these 

 larvre are vegetable feeders by choice. 



LOCATION OF FOOD BY THE WIREWORMS. 



Whether or not the wireworms, under field conditions, can locate 

 food at a distance, and, if so, at what distance, is more or less problem- 

 atical. Wlien wireworms were injuring l)eets in the fields it was 

 found bv careful digging that all which were near the beets were 

 actually feeding on them. Wireworms noticed in fields containing 

 young beets were almost always found in the beet rows, in spite of 

 the fact that the ground there is compact and unfavorable for them. 

 These facts seem to carry out the idea gained from the experiments 

 with the young larvoe, that they can locate food at a sliort distance, 

 though this is not proven conclusively. 



