86 * ORDER COLEOPTEllA. 



Elatei'idse. 



The most distinct characters of this family are found in the form and structure of the 

 posterior part of the thorax and sternum : the sides of tlie former are prolonged into a 

 tooth, and the latter is produced into a spine which fits into a groove of the abdomen. 

 This arrangement of parts enables the insect, when ujk)!! its back, to spring upwards and, 

 alight ui>oi^ts feet : this is the only mode by which it can recover *ts standing, when 

 accidentally upset ; and from this circumstance these insects are called spring beetles, or 

 snapbugs. Their antennae are short and filiform, and either serrate or pectinate ; the palpi 

 terminate with a triangular or reniform joint ; the mandibles are bifid at the apex : body 

 linear and depressed : thorax with the hinder and lateral angles produced into a point ; 

 the margin is also groovedTfor the reception of the short antennse. The sternum is produced 

 behind into a spiae, which fits into a groove in the base of the abdomen. The females are 

 ftirnished with a tripartite ovipositor. 



In this famil)-, as in the preceding, the head is received into the thorax deeply, and the 

 legs and antennse are short and slender. 



The larvse live upon the roots of vegetables, wood, etc., and are very injurious to corn 

 and herbaceous roots. They are known in New-York and New-England by the name of 

 mreworms, from their form and hardness : they resemble, however, a species of Iulus, 

 which belongs to the Class Mykiapoda, and should therefore not be confounded with it ; 

 a mistake which it is quite unnecessary to commit, as the myriapod has many feet, while 

 the wireworm has only six. 



Although the elateridae, in their perfect state, are closely allied to the buprestidaj, yet 

 their larvae have feet, while the larvse of the latter family are destitute of them : so the 

 enlargement or dilatation near their heads is equally distinctive ; but there is one kind of 

 resemblance common to both, for they both live several years in the larval state, and hence 

 have abundance of time to do much injury. When a field becomes infested with wire- 

 worms, the indian corn and other cultivated crops are often entirely destroyed, and many 

 times require replanting. Tlie larva eats either through the kernel after it is swollen, or 

 else through the young shoot. I have seen two wireworms in the same swollen kernel. 

 They attack grass, and all the cereals ; and in consequence of their long continuance in 

 this state, the soil becomes infested with them. 



Soils which are the most infested with these larvae are usually poor ; and one of the 

 most efifective modes that can be adopted in the cultivation of such land, is to enrich it. 

 Another mode which aids very materially in the extirpation of the wireworm, is to plough 

 late in the fall : it is supposed that by exposing the ground freely to the action of frost, 

 the larvse must perish from cold. 



