4 SMITH§ONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



LITERATURE 



The first important contribution to the morphology and biology 

 of the larval Elateridae appeared in the last half of the nineteenth 

 century when European workers took an evident interest in larval 

 Coleoptera in general. Chapuis and Candeze (1855), Schiodte (1870), 

 Ferris (1863, 1877), Rupertsberger (1880, 1894), and Rey (1887) 

 produced general works that included significant sections on the Ela- 

 teridae. These paved the way for the comprehensive treatises of 

 Beling (1883-1884) and Henriksen (191 1), which were devoted en- 

 tirely to elaterid larvae. With the advent of World War I, 1914- 

 1918, and the consequent increased attention to agricultural pro- 

 duction, there was a marked awakening of interest in the pest species. 

 The identification of closely related forms was required, and broad 

 generic studies gave way to detailed morphology. The results are 

 revealed in the useful papers of Ford (1917), Roberts (1919, 1921, 

 1922, 1928), Horst (1922), Saalas (1923a, 1923b), Rambousek 

 (1928), Gueniat (1934), Subklew (1934b), and the Australian 

 worker McDougall (1934). An increased interest in biology brought 

 forth the publications of Rambousek (1929) and the German writers 

 Blunck (1925), Langenbuch (1932), and Subklew (1934b). Numer- 

 ous Russian workers today are contributing valuable biological infor- 

 mation in the reports of their faunal surveys and other ecological 

 work. 



In America the first important comparative morphology of wire- 

 worms originated in investigations of an economic character. The 

 pioneers — Fitch (1867), Comstock and Slingerland (1891), and 

 Forbes (1892) — limited their studies to pest species. Thereafter, 

 interest centered upon control until Hyslop (1917) turned his atten- 

 tion to a study of the larval characters for the identification of the 

 major subdivisions of the family. This work was slightly revised by 

 Boving and Craighead (1931) in their general treatise on coleop- 

 terous larvae. The most recent work on comparative morphology 

 has been done in Canada, where Glen (1931, unpublished thesis) 

 distinguished the larvae of 18 species occurring in Saskatchewan, 

 and later Glen, King, and Arnason (1943) worked out the identifica- 

 tion of wireworms of economic importance in Canada. As in Europe, 

 however, most of the recent studies have centered on detailed mor- 

 phology as a basis for the identification of closely related species : 

 Hyslop (1915b), Arnason (1931, unpublished thesis), Hyslop and 

 Boving (1935), Glen (1935, 1941), Hawkins (1936), Jewett (1939), 

 and Lanchester (1939, 1941). Economic entomologists have con- 

 tinued to contribute notes on the biology and ecology of the wire- 



