180 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



high sheep farms in Tweedale were dreadfully infested 

 by a caterpillar, which was probably the larva of this 

 moth ; spots of a mile square were totally covered by 

 them, and the grass devoured to the root a . 



Most of the insects I have hitherto mentioned attack 

 our crops partially, confining themselves to one or two 

 kinds only ; but there are some species which extend 

 their ravages indifferently to all. Of this description is 

 the Pyralis ? frumentalis^ which moth, Pallas tells us, is 

 an almost universal pest in the government of Kasan in 

 Russia, often eating the greater part of the spring corn 

 to the root b . To this we are fortunately strangers ; but 

 another, well known by the name of the wire-worm, 

 causes annually a large diminution of the produce of our 

 fields, destroying indiscriminately wheat, rye, oats, and 

 grass c . This insect, which has its name apparently from 

 its slender form, and uncommon hardness and tough- 

 ness, is the grub of one of the elastic beetles termed by 

 Linne Elater lineatus^ but by Bierkander, to whom we 

 are indebted for its history, E. Segetis d 9 which name is 

 now generally adopted. The late ingenious Mr. Paul of 

 Starston in Norfolk, (well known as the inventor of a 

 machine e to entrap the turnip-beetle, which may be ap- 

 plied by collectors with great advantage to general pur- 

 poses,) has also succeeded in tracing this insect from the 

 larva to the imago state. His grubs produced Elater 

 obscurus of Mr. Marsham, which however comes so near/ 

 to E. Segetis that it is doubtful whether it be more than 



3 Farmer's Mag. iii. 487. 



b Pallas's Travels in South Russia, \. 30. c PLATE XVIII. Fie.4. 



d Marsham in Communications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412. 



Plate xviii./g. 4. and Linn. Trans, ix. 60. e PLATE XXIV. FIG. 3. 



