1899] CARNIVOROUS WIREWORMS, 67 



carnivorous, and lives in decaying trunks of Ash and Beech, where it 

 devours the larvae of Lepturce and other insects." * 



The general colour was pale yellowish, and along the dorsal segments, 

 with the exception of the one next to the head, were coarse punctures, often 

 more or less confluent, so as to make longitudinal markings. The specimen 

 had been injured in transit, so that I could not satisfy myself that a 

 short appendage to the terminal segment was the remainder of the 

 " two short bifurcate cerci " ; but the large and sometimes confluent 

 punctures along the back of the larva, which are an especial charac- 

 teristic of this species, were very noticeable. From such expert con- 

 sultation as I could avail myself of, it seemed likely, but not absolutely 

 certain, that this Wireworm, captured in the very act of preying on 

 the Vine Weevil, was the larva of A. rhombeus, 01., still it might be a 

 larva of one of the other species of Elateridce. 



The Vine Weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatns, sent accompanying, and 

 through which the Wireworm was working its way onwards through 

 a good-sized hole which it had pierced in the right wing-case, is only 

 too well known as the black short-snouted weevil, with the rough 

 wing-cases spotted with pale hairy tufts, which is seriously injurious 

 in beetle state above ground, and in maggot state under ground, to 

 Vines and many other plants, and its attacks are especially hurtful to 

 Maidenhair Ferns. 



In the instance sent me by Mr. Druery, the attack had evidently 

 taken place whilst the weevil was just developed below ground, for 

 when it reached me the specimen was still flexible and soft, so that 

 the wing-cases were pervious to the Wireworm's biting powers, and, 

 having once well inserted itself, the Wireworm was fairly stuck fast 

 in the abdomen of its prey as it walked up the fern frond. The 

 entrance-hole through the wing-case was roughly gnawed round the 

 edge, and larger by about twice the width necessary for passage of the 

 Wireworm. 



I am afraid the above observation can hardly be utilized for 

 practical purposes, but it is perhaps of some intrinsic interest, as an 



* I quote the above from ' Coleoptera of the British Islands,' vol. iv. p. 97, by 

 the Kev. Canon W. Fowler, from which I also give the following passage with techni- 

 cal description of the larva verbatim : — " The larva of A. rhombeus is described and 

 figured by Schiodte (part v. p. 523, pi. ix. fig. 12) ; it is less parallel-sided than is 

 usually the case with its allies, and has the segments of the abdomen a little 

 narrowed in front and behind, so that the sides are not even ; it is, however, chiefly 

 remarkable for the fact that the dorsal scuta of all the segments, with the exception 

 of the prothorax, which is longer and not so broad as the following, are very 

 coarsely punctured, the punctures being large, and often more or less confluent ; 

 the mandibles are very strong and projecting, and the ninth abdominal segment is 

 large, armed with short blunt teeth at sides, and terminated by two short bifurcate 

 cerci ; the colour is pale yellowish, with the head and dorsal scuta fuscous." 



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