CHAPTER X. 



GENERAL ITEMS. 



Soil Pests. 



THE following insect pests are general feeders, and do 

 not confine themselves to any particular crop or kind 

 of vegetable. 



Wire worms (Agriotes lineatm). The wire worm is 

 the larval stage of the skip- jack or click beetle. It 

 is about 1 inch long, of a brownish-yellow colour, and 

 is furnished with six legs, one pair on each of the first 

 three segments and a swelling on the lower surface 

 of the terminal segment. It continues in the larval 

 stage from three to five years, feeding all the 

 time. 



Leather-jackets (Tipula oleracea). The leather- 

 jacket is the caterpillar of the crane fly or daddy- 

 long-legs. It is about an inch long, of variable col- 

 our, but generally brownish, and the head is black. 

 It has no legs, and the tail end, which is cut square, 

 is furnished with several tubercles. 



These two pests are ravenous and indiscriminate 

 feeders, being liable to attack the roots of all kinds 

 of vegetable crops. They are usually abundant in 

 land which has been under grass for some time, and 



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