1.14 Insects most injurious to Cultivators:—" 



the last of which is not notched at the tip (as in the larvae of 

 some of the species), is longer than the preceding segment, and 

 terminated by a rather acute mucro at the tip, with a deep cir- 

 cular impression on each side of the segment, near the base, on 

 the upper side. These impressions have been doubtingly re- 

 garded by Messrs. Kirby and Spence as the only breathing 

 spiracles possessed by the insect,' but, as they are not situated 

 in the ordinary place of spiracles in coleopterous larvae, and as 

 the other larvae of this family are destitute of them, and, more- 

 over, as the wire- worm possesses a series of spiracles on each 

 side of the body, which Messrs. Kirby and Spence have over- 

 looked, I consider that these impressions must have some other 

 office attributed to them, and that they cannot be analogous to 

 the two spiracles at the extremity of the body of the larvae of 

 some dipterous insects. The under side of the terminal segment 

 of the body (.y%. 9. b) is furnished with a large fleshy retractile 

 tubercle, employed as a seventh leg, and which, when unem- 

 ployed, is concealed within a nearly semicircular space at the base 

 of the segment beneath. The larva is very similar in its general 

 appearance to the meal-worm, or larva of Tenebrio molitor 

 [Jig. 9. c, the head seen from beneath). 



The late Mr. Paul of Starston, in Norfolk (the inventor of the 

 insect-net described in the first article of my series), also suc- 

 ceded in tracing the wire-worm to its perfect state. His speci- 

 mens were described by Mr. Marsham as the E'iater obscurus, 

 M'hich Stephens gives as distinct, but which Kirby and Spence 

 consider merely as a variety of E'later lineatus Linn. 



About the beginning of the present century, these insects were 

 very injurious; when the late Mr. Marsham laid a communication 

 upon the subject before the Board of Agriculture, and likewise 

 published a short note concerning them in the ninth volume of 

 the LinncEcin Transactio7is. From these and Bjerkander's state- 

 ments, it appears that the wire- worms feed chiefly on the roots 

 of wheat, rye, oats, barley, and grass, and that the insect is not 

 less than five years in attaining its perfect state; so that it may 

 easily be conceived that, during so long a period, its ravages 

 must be very extensive. Indeed, from information which I have 

 received, I understand that they are occasionally so injurious as 

 to render resowing necessary. They will also attack turnips 

 (eating to the centre of the root), potatoes, carrots, salads, and 

 cabbages [Gard. Mag., iii. 38 1.), /rideae, pinks, lobelias, &c. 

 [Ibid., p. 493.). Mr. Spence, in a note published in the Introduction 

 to Entomology^ states that they are particularly destructive, for 

 a few years, in gardens recently converted from pasture ground. 

 In the Botanic Garden at Hull, thus circumstanced, a great 

 proportion of the annuals sown in 1813 were destroyed by 

 them. 



