Sirnk See they had almost ciples destroyed fie eater: 
corn; in others the roots were bored through and the outer surface © 
away so as to almost destroy their usefulness. 
Agriotes mancus is so ‘destructive to wheat as to be known as” 
“wheat wireworm.” Drasterius elegans is also known to infest thi 
crop, as do other species as well. Rye, barley, and oats also suffer from 2 
wireworm attacks. Dr. Fitch also found them burrowing in timothy — 
bulbs. Larve taken from a dense clover sod and placed in our breeding 
cages, where they were supplied only with grass and clover, gave us 
umagos of Asaphes decoloratus. as 
Among root crops, potatoes often suffer from being bored into and 
by having the surface gnawed and corroded by the worms; but turnips, — 
it is said, appear to be more infested by them than any other root ero og 
Besides the crops already mentioned Dr. Fitch names the following, 
which the wireworms are known to attack or are recorded as attacking: — 
mangel-wurzel, cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, lettuce, rape, hops, straw 
berries, pinks, carnations, dahlias, lobelias s, and numerous other garden 
flowers. They have also been reported to me by a horticultural friend — 
as destroying planted peach pits in the earth. xa 
The injurious species agree fairly well in the main features of their 
life history, changing to the dormant pupe in the earth in July or 
sometimes in August, and changing again some three or four weeks — 
later to the brown or reddish beetles commonly known as “click beetles” 
or “jumping jacks”—hard, somewhat hairy insects, of slender ovale 
form, distinguished at once by their peculiar habit of springing into the — 
air with a sudden click when placed upon their backs. A large part of 
these fully developed beetles remain under ground until spring, enjoying _ 
there the protection of the oval earthen cavity or cell formed by the — 
larva as a preparation for pupation. A part, however. come forth from ag 
the ground in fall, passing the winter in sheltered places, and the re- — 
mainder emerge in spring, laying their eggs most commonly in grass 
lands in the earth. Of their subsequent life history little is yet definitely — 
known. It seems certain that all live more than one year as wireworms | 
in the earth, and observation of the various sizes of larve of the same — 
species to be found in the field at once, usually supports the common — 
impression that the period of life in the larval stage does not oxen 
beyond two years: a fact which, taken in connection with the death and 
decay of grass roots the first year after breaking up the sod, serves to_ 
explain the greater damage done by wireworms the second year the~ 
ground is in corn. The number of wireworms having been little dimin- 
ished since the crop was changed, and their original food having 
practically disappeared, they are compelled to concentrate upon the corn 
—either the newly planted seed or the young plant while it is still ery 
small. ‘ 
The species of wireworms have by no means all been identified by .% 
breeding, but a good beginning has been made in this useful work at my = 
own office and at the Cornell University Experiment Station. As a 
present aid to discrimination of forms T here present an outline of dis- 
tinctive characters drawn up by my office assisstant, Mr. C. A. Hart. ie 
