INSEOTS. 197 
swollen kernelin the ground. It has not proved 
very destructive. <A tarring of the seed before 
planting will doubtless keep off the maggot. 
Wire worms (Elateride). These are the larvee 
(grubs) of the common snapping beetles, of 
which there are many species. These worms 
(Fig. 41) are greatly 
abundant only in new- 
ly-plowed meadows. 
They eat into and destroy the kernels of corn 
or eat off the germinating shoot or roots. 
Lintner says the best preventive in infested 
fields is starving out by crops 
of buckwheat or peas.* ‘Fall 4 
plowing of sod land is thought Ἐ 
desirable by many farmers, the “é 
FIG. 42.—F ALSE WIRE 
grubs being disturbed and Wouw. 
frozen out. Fig. 42 is of the False wire worm 
(Lulus). 
Affecting the roots.—Corn plant louse (Aphis 
maidis, Fitch). Small, pale green lice, covered 
with a whitish mealy substance, feed below the 
surface on the juices of the corn root. Large 
numbers of these will be found about the roots 
of one plant. Later in the season great num- 
bers of dull black and green aphis are found on 
the leaves, husks and tassels of the plant, which 
are the same insects in a different stage of de- 
Fig. 41.—WIRE WORM. 
* Kighth report on the injurious and other insects of the 
State of New York for the year 1891, p. 288. 
