slender towards the tip, ant a sixteenth of an inch ne That at. the 
anterior angle is supported on a small papilla, the posterior being pro- | 
longed from the tip of the angle. Terminal abdominal segment “above — 
subquadrate, emarginate at tip, angles acute and divergent, beneath vite ey : 
a deep sinuous groove on each side and a median shallower groove. —* 
“Abdomen above and beneath of nine segments, the first very nar- 
row, distinctly visible above, beneath visible only at the sides; second 
slightly broader, beneath nearly entirely concealed. The remaining seg- _ 
ments are distinctly visible both above and beneath, the distal angles 
being slightly prominent, giving the sides of the abdomen a dentate ap- 
pearance.” (GzEo, H. Horn, Can. Ent. IV., 1872, p. 6.) 
Imago. (Plate V., Fig. 4.)—Robust, color piceous to brown, elytra 
often paler, surface moderately pubescent. Head and thorax very con- 
vex, the mouth inferior, mandibles broad and chisel-shaped at tip; a 
surface of head and thorax densely and coarsely punctate; strie of elytra 
deep, punctate, interspaces nearly flat, rugose, and punctulate, antenne 
and feet rufous. 
Length 7-9 mm. 
Agriotes pubescens, Mels. 
(Plate VI., Fig. 1.) 
This species, closely related to the foregoing, is not separable from 
it in the larval stage, and as the two occur in about equal abundance in ~~ 
corn fields and have a similar life history, they may best be treated—at 
least until more is known of them—as a single economic species. 
Melanotus communis, Gyll. 
2 
(Plate VI., Fig. 3-5.) 
This species is one of the most abundant of our click beetles, and 
the wireworm descended from it has been taken by us in about equal — 
numbers with that of the following species (J/. fissilis). The two to- 
gether make about twenty-eight per cent. of the wireworm collections of 
this office. The species is ‘widely distributed, ranging at least from 
Nebraska to New Jersey and Canada. The wireworm of . communts,* 
though so abundant generally, has not been especially common in our 
collections from corn fields, only eight out of forty-five lots collected 
by office assistants having come to us from such situations. These were 
taken respectively June 30, 1883, from about the roots of corn near ~ 
Milan; from corn fields at Champaign, May 25, 1885, and May 16, 
1886; from roots of corn after prairie sod at Mendota, July 17, 1884; _ 
from corn fields near Peoria, July 1, 1883, from sod corn at Mt. Pulaski, 
June 16, 1885; from corn at Urbana, May 7, 1888; and from a corn — 
field on the Univ ersity premises at Urbana, November 25, 1890. 
Tafe History. —The length of the larval period is not definitely — 
known, but is not less than three years. According to the account of — 
Comstock and Slingerland (with which our own breeding-cage results _ 
agree), pupation occurs during July, and about one month later the ~y 
change to the adult state has taken place. The beetles under observation 
* The larva of M. fissilis, the species following. is quite possibly included here. Ba 
