oP SO SS Se AG OAS Ra ee 
‘on > ‘ 2 . ° . ; ane 
except a single communis, which may ‘not impossibly have been 
duced with the sod. The earth in the breeding cages was mixed ¥ 
soaked corn kept covered with fresh sod. : 
A similar but smaller experiment was made the following year, with © 
a like result, wireworms placed in a breeding cage in May yielding the : 
adult of this species by September 17. es 
From these experiments it is evident that the larval life of cribue . 
losus, and clearly of communis also, is completed during the latter part — 
of the summer, and that the transformation to the imago begins in early — 
autumn. It is probable that the imagos emerging pass the winter in 
their pupal cells, although the death of our specimens in the earth | 
makes the evidence on this point incomplete. 
The hibernation of this species above ground anywhere outside its 
pupal chamber has not been positively ascertained by us. The only coke 
lections made from the office which could possibly bear this interpreta-— 
tion are five obtained in April from the 8th to the 28th of the month. — 
Three of these were from ground being plowed, and both the other — 
specimens came from corn fields—one from about the roots of old corm | 
of the preceding year. 
Description. Larva. (Plate VI., Fig. 6-8.)—Length about 20 
mm., width 2mm. Subeylindrical, slightly ‘depressed, yellow:castan@Gnea = 
extremities darker, surface glabrous ‘and shining, minutely and very 
sparsely punctate. 
Head flattened; clypeus with a rather sharp black tooth at middle, — 
and a shorter tooth each side. Exterior to these, the front margin bears — 
a brush of long, golden yellow hair. Four sulci extend back from the 
front margin, the outer pair ending in a setigerous puncture. The 
posterior clypeal prolongation widens slightly behind the constriction — 
and usually tapers a little posteriorly, but does not become narrow 
than at the constriction. Labrum invisible. Mandibles black, toothed Ss 
internally. Mavxille and labium as usual in wireworms, the palpi short — 
and stout. Antenne short, the penultimate joint obtusely toothed be- _ 
neath, the last joint hemispherical, whitish. a 
First thoracic segment about as long as the other two comune 
Abdominal segments about two thirds as long as the prothoraciec, except — 
the first, which is shorter, and the last, which is nearly twice as long as 
the one preceding. Each segment bears an elevated border in front, — 
limited by a sharp darker edge posteriorly, which is obsolete at the © 
middle on the thoracic and first abdominal segments. This edge curves — 
suddenly backward in front of the spiracles. These are oblong ovate, — 
not far from the anterior margins of the segments, one on each ab-_ 
dominal segment except the last, and the thoracic pair on the mesotho- | 
rax below the lateral margin. Above the spiracles, close to the elevated 
border, is a transverse longitudinally striated oval muscular impression, 
and between them and the spiracles originates an impressed line which _ 
extends backwards partially across the segment. The strie of the mus- 
cular impressions are light colored, and they are separated by dark 
brown flat intervals. On the middle segments of the body there are- 
usually five stris in each impression, sometimes fewer, and in one speci- 
men tone. On the terminal segments the number may reach ten or | 
twelve: and on the prothorax there are usually more than five. The 
