Wire- Worm. 115 



I have found these larvae occasionally in the stems of lettuce 

 plants, the interior of which has been completely devoured. 

 They creep tolerably quickly, with a sliding kind of motion, the 

 tail being bent on one side, somewhat like the letter S. Bouche, 

 in his Saturgeschichte and Garferi Insecten, has described a larva, 

 which he states to be that of E later lineatus Linn, (segetis Gyll.i 

 and striaius Fabr.), but which materially diflFers from that of 

 the true wire-vrorm, in being depressed in its form, with the tail 

 forked, and with the lateral margins uneven [Jig. 9. g). His 

 account of its habits, also, does not accord with that given both 

 by Bjerkander and Marsham : indeed, the description and figure 

 which he has given of the larva of E later fulvipennis of Hoff- 

 mansefffT most closelv resembles that of the true wire-worm. 

 Fig. 9. f represents the larva of another of the Elaterida?, dif- 

 fering in its larger size, and in the shape of the terminal segment 

 of the body. 



The pupa of the wire-worm, as described by Bjerkander, is 

 much shorter than the larva, of a whitish colour, and formed 

 like the pupee of coleopterous insects in general. 



Signor Passerini, an Italian entomologist, who has paid much 

 attention to the insects injurious to cultivators, has also published 

 a memoir upon this insect, which, in Italy, commits much 

 devastation on the roots of corn. [Rapporio sopra F Opuscolo del 

 Signor yegri sopra il Bnico che devasfa i Seminati di Friimento.) 



Of the means to be adopted for the destruction of this insect, 

 none can, perhaps, be more beneficial than that proposed by 

 Sir Joseph Banks, which is not only very simple but very effec- 

 tual ; namely, to stick slices of potato upon skewers, which 

 should be buried near the spots infested by these insects, and 

 examined every day, when the wire- worms, which collect on them 

 in great numbers, may be easily destroyed. From a communi- 

 cation which was, however, made to the Entomological Society of 

 London, on the 7th of November, 1S36, by the Rev. F. W. 

 Hope, it appears that laying the slices of potato on the surface 

 of the ground is more eflficacious than burviufr them. Mr. Hoffor, 

 also {^Gard. Mag., iv. 3l7.)j notices the great service he has 

 derived from laying slices of lettuce on the ground as a bait for 

 the wire-worms. It is not generally known that the mole de- 

 stroys them in great quantities, and pheasants are particularly 

 fond of them : indeed, I have heard of instances in which the 

 crops of these birds, when shot, have been found to be filled 

 with wire-worms. 



In cases, however, in which whole fields are infested with 

 them, it would certainly be more serviceable at once to throw 

 down what remains of the crop, and turn up the earth with 

 the plough several times ; when poultry and rooks, which are 

 equally fond of them, will destroy great quantities of them. 



I 2* 



