OUK FARM CEOPS. 



(Elateridce), which lay their eggs in the soil where they 

 hatch, become larvae or wireworms, in which condition 

 they remain during five years before they arrive at ma- 



1. True wireworm, Elater lineatus. 2. Wireworin attacking wheat plant. 

 3. Millipede (lulus londinensis), or false wirewonu. 



turity, when they change into pupse, from which in due 

 time the perfect insect, the click-beetle (Elater lineatus, 

 or E. Ruficaudis) emerges. 



These worms eat into the stem of the young plant just 

 above the root, as it rises from the ground, and destroy it, 

 or they may be met with at a later period high up in the 

 stem, feeding on it and the young leaf. They generally, 

 at the approach of winter, bury themselves deep in the 

 soil, as they cannot support either much cold or much 

 drought; they are there, too, beyond the reach of the vari- 

 ous birds and insects which feed upon them. Moles as 



