48 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



LUDIUS LATUS (Fabricius) 



Figure 15, d-f 



Elater latus Fabricius, Systema Eleutheratorum, vol. 2, p. 232, 1801. 



Ludms latus (Fabricius), Boisduval and Lacordaire, Faune Entomologique 



des Environs de Paris, vol. i, p. 667, 1835. 

 Diacanthns latus (Fabricius), Germar, Zeitschr. fiir die Ent., vol. 4, p. 77, 1843. 

 Corymbites (Selatosoinus) latus (Fabricius), Schenkling, Coleopt. Cat. (ed. 



Junk), vol. 2, pt. 88, p. 370, 1927. 



This species is a well-known pest from France to the Far Eastern 

 area of Siberia. Crops attacked include cereals, vegetables, tobacco, 

 chufa (Cyperus esculentus Linnaeus) and rubber-producing plants. 

 In general, latus appears to inhabit typical "steppe" and "forest- 

 steppe" areas. However, the preferred native habitat appears to be 

 unknown. Regnier (1921) observed the species to be more dangerous 

 in recently cleared land in France, but Bei-Bienko (1936) found 

 relatively few larvae in virgin soil in the Orenburg district of western 

 Siberia. Russian writers are in general agreement that latus is most 

 abundant in abandoned fields, especially in land overgrown with 

 Agropyron, Artemisia, and Bromus, and least abundant in fields that 

 recently have been in clean fallow. Pilyugina (1937) found infesta- 

 tions of this species to be more severe on unirrigated fields than on 

 irrigated tracts, and Semenov (1931) reports infestations to be heavier 

 on the higher parts of tobacco fields. Thus, it would appear that latus 

 prefers dry locations. Masaitis (1929) reports pupation as occur- 

 ring at a depth of from 3 to 6 inches below the soil surface. 



The larva has been described at length by Ferris (1877, pp. 177- 

 179), who failed to find differences from the larva of aeneus; Masaitis 

 (1931) compared latus and spretus; and Rambousek (1928) referred 

 briefly to latus in his key, but did not make comparisons with closely 

 related species. Znamensky (1926, 1927) separates latus and aeneus 

 in his illustrated keys, latus usually being dark reddish yellow and 

 bearing well-defined tubercles ventrad to bases of urogomphal prongs, 

 aeneus usually pale yellow and bearing small, indefinite turbercles 

 ventrad to bases of urogomphal prongs. 



Larvae examined in the present study measured up to 24 mm. in 

 length and 3.0 mm. in width. The larva is very similar to that of 

 aeripennis and aeneus, but, on the basis of the material at hand, differs 

 in possessing the following characters : 2 setae on the central dorsal 

 area of the ninth abdominal segment (fig. 15, /) ; transverse branches 

 of the impressions on the first 8 abdominal segments slightly longer 



