BULLETIN 156, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



worm, is foimd in granaries and warehouses, where it feeds upon 

 stored products. Another genus (Eleodes) is found only in the ter- 

 ritory west of the Mississippi Eiver, and attacks cereal crops in the 

 field. The name " wireworm " is also incorrectly applied to several 

 species of millipedes {Julus spp., fig. 1, c). 



The true wireworms. from an economic standpoint, are among the 

 five worst pests to Indian corn and among the twelve worst pests to 

 wheat and oats. They are also important pests to many other crops. 

 Since 1841, when Dr. Thaddeus Harris first published an account of 

 these insects. 1 the literature of economic entomology has been replete 

 with references to their depredations, and from the standpoint of the 



entomologist, as to the diffi- 

 culty of combating them, 

 they probably rank second 

 only to the white grubs 

 {Lachnosterna spp.). 



In view of the recently 

 enacted Federal quarantine 

 bill these insects assume an 

 added interest, inasmuch as 

 they can easily be introduced 

 in the larval condition with- 

 in fleshy roots, bulbs, and 

 tubers. Mr. E. R. Sasscer, 

 of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, recently intercepted 

 an elaterid larva in the root 

 of Aralia cordata from Ja- 

 pan: the larva was in good 

 condition and is still alive 

 in our laboratory (October, 

 1911). The writer has often 

 seen the larvae of Agriotes 

 mancus Say within potato tubers that had been in a root cellar all 

 winter. 



These insects are destructive to cereal and forage crops in the 

 larval stage only, although the adults of certain species {Limonius 

 discoideus Lee, etc.) do considerable damage to the blossoms of fruit 

 trees in the Pacific Northwest, and Fletcher reports 2 similar depre- 

 dations of the adults of two other species {Gorymbites caricinus 

 Germ, and G. tarsalis Melsh.). The forms attacking: cereal and 



£— ^f 



7rfr 



Fig. 1. — Larvae likely to be mistaken for wire- 

 worms : a, False wireworm ; b, mealworm ; 

 c, Julus sp. All enlarged. (Original.) 



1 Harris, T. W. Report on the Insects of Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation. 

 p. 46-50. Cambridge, 1841. 



2 Fletcher, James. Report of the Entomologist and Botanist, Central Experiment Farm, 

 Canada, for 1892, p. 4. Ottawa, 1892. 



