CORN AND COTTON WIREWORM AND ITS CONTROL. 5 
The larve are quick of movement and wriggle vigorously when 
disturbed. In indoor rearing cages they are found to be keenly sus- 
ceptible to an overabundance of moisture, and, too, will die if the cage 
soil is allowed to get excessively dry. 
Cannibalism is common among them, especially under artificial 
rearing conditions, but the fact that as many as 106 larvee have been 
found in one hill of corn is evidence that this habit does not exist to 
any great extent in the field when there is plenty of plant food at 
hand. 
HABITS OF THE ADULTS, OR BEETLES. 
The adults, or beetles, are also very quick of movement. Imme- 
diately: upon being disturbed they “snap” themselves and fall to the 
ground from the leaf or stem upon which they are resting. On the 
ground they feign death for a few moments, then quickly scamper 
off to a hiding place. The adults feed very little, hence any injury 
which they might cause would be hardly perceptible. 
They evidently fly well, as they have been collected in quantities 
around lights at night. This would probably explain the fact that 
adults have been collected several miles from the nearest sandy spot 
or field. The author, however, has never seen them fly in the day- 
time. 
The female beetles will not deposit eggs in soil which is crusted 
over or baked, but leave such a field and search for one which is 
covered by a dust mulch, or which has recently been plowed. This 
fact is important and should be taken into account when control 
measures are being considered, since cultivation at the time the beetles 
are most numerous means that excellent conditions are given the 
females for depositing their eggs. 
NATURAL ENEMIES. 
Comparatively few natural enemies of this wireworm have been 
noted. No internal parasites have been reared from any stage of 
the species. Birds feed upon all kinds of wireworms including those 
of the genus Horistonotus. 
INEFFECTUAL REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
PLOWING. 
Late fall and winter plowing as a method of reducing the numbers 
of the pest by turning up and exposing the larve to the elements is 
of no value, as the wireworms are at this time at such depths in the 
soil that they would not be disturbed by the plowing. Plowing or 
cultivating for this purpose at other times of the year is of little 
avail as the wireworms are so quick of movement that almost as soon 
