164 WIRE-WORMS. 



he must be transformed too, and that by the 

 renewing of his mind? The same insect may- 

 be said, in certain cases, to Hve in several 

 different worlds. It inhabits, in its successive 

 conditions, water, earth, and air, while it is 

 fitted for these respective abodes by new or- 

 gans, instruments, and forms suited to each. 

 Every one has some purpose. Can we have a 

 better illustration of this than in Bonnet's cele- 

 brated remark : *' Of what riches should we not 

 have been deprived, if the silkworm had been 

 born a moth without having been pre^aously a 

 caterpillar !" 



Still the larvae of many insects do the 

 greatest injury to the produce of the farms of 

 this country. For example, there is scarcely 

 any species of cultivated plant free from their 

 attacks. "Wheat, rye, oats, and grasses are 

 largely destroyed by them. These wire-worms 

 are the larvse hatched from the eggs of certain 

 beetles. " It will probably," remarks Mr. 

 Curtis, *' surprise the general reader to learn 

 that there are nearly seventy species of beetles 

 in this country which are the parents of wire- 

 worms : many of them, however, live in de- 

 caying trees, or under the bark ; and the num- 

 ber that affect our crops of corn, vegetables. 



