THE WIRE-WORM. 115 



there are instances on record of perfect beetles of this 

 group making their appearance unexpectedly from 

 wood which has been worked up into furniture, 

 either the larva or the pupa having been concealed 

 in its interior, and escaped all the perils attendant on 

 the adaptation of its habitation to the uses of man. 



The larvae of all our species of Click Beetles do 

 not, however, feed in the situations above mentioned, 

 a few, and amongst them those of the exceedingly 

 common species of Agriotes, whose general appear- 

 ance in the perfect state has already been described, 

 conceal themselves in the ground, where they devour 

 the roots of various plants. They are great enemies 

 to the farmer, who knows them but too well under 

 the name of Wire-worms, an appellation bestowed 

 upon them in consequence of their slender cylindrical 

 form and the hardness of their covering. Even in 

 gardens the larvae of a small species (the Agriotes 

 sputator) are very destructive to vegetables, and 

 sometimes to flowering plants ; they are said to have 

 a particular partiality for lettuces, into the stems of 

 which they eat. 



Very different in their habits from the peaceful 

 little tumblers which we have just been examining, 

 are many of the other members of this tribe, with 

 some of which probably most of my readers are more 

 familiar. Under the names of Soldiers and Sailors, 

 almost every child must be acquainted with two or 

 three species of these beetles, which occur so abun- 

 dantly on flowers, both in our fields and gardens, 

 during the early summer, that the wonder would be 

 to find any one who had never observed them. The 

 common Soldier (Telephorus lividus) is entirely of a 

 pale yellowish red colour, with the exception of the 



