194 HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 



he holds the insect on its hack it elevates the abdo- 

 minal portion, and again lets it fall so as to make a 

 beating sound ; and hence its generic name, and also 

 its common name of click-and-hammer beetle. If he 

 remove his finger when in this position, the creature 

 immediately skips up and turns on its feet, from 

 which action it has got the name of " skipjack." 



Curtis has estimated nearly seventy species of 

 click-beetles as producing wire-worms in this coun- 

 try; but the three following are those generally met 

 with — Mater lineatus, E. obscurus, and E. ruficau- 

 dis. These all attack corn and almost every other 

 kind of vegetable. 



The larvae of these are very much alike, being hard, 

 leathery, wiry caterpillars, which vary in length to 

 about three-quarters of an inch, according to age. 

 These are mostly smooth, and have six feet on their 

 thoracic segments, and a false foot or proleg in the 

 middle of the underpart of the terminal section of 

 the abdomen — characters by which wire-worms may 

 be distinguished from all others. Their length varies 

 with age ; as they live for some years in the larva 

 state, so the different sizes mark so many broods, 

 which in some fields are annually provided for. It 

 should here be observed that the wire-worm does 

 not breed ; these larvae can only be hatched from the 

 eggs of the female click-beetle : hence, then, destroy- 

 ing the worms prevents the development of their 

 parent. 



Now, as we have seen whole fields of wheat de- 

 stroyed by wire-worms, it becomes important to 

 examine the nature of this attack, with a view to 

 point out a remedy. If, then, we go into a corn field 



