BULLETIN 156, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



has been noted 1 in which a wireworm [Lacon (Agrypnus) murinus 

 L.] lived in the stomach of a child. Most of our common species lay 

 their eggs on sod or very weedy land, but the wireworms {Corymbdes 

 spp.) of the dry-farming country of the Pacific Northwest are severe 

 pests on land that has been seeded to wheat, by the summer fallow 

 method, for the past 15 years, and, as this land was originally sage- 

 brush prairie, it probably never was in sod. 



Several distinct kinds of true wireworms are destructive to cereal 

 and forage crops in the United States : and since, as has already been 



stated, the different kinds vary more 

 or less in their life histories, there is 

 consequently a variation in the method 

 of control as recommended in the fol- 

 lowing pages of this bulletin. It is 

 therefore quite necessary to determine 

 the identity of the wireworm. and to 

 meet this necessity the many species 

 of importance as pests to cereal and 

 forage crops are treated separately. 



THE WHEAT WIREWORM. 



(Agriotes mancus (Say), fig. 2.) 



The adult of the wheat wireworm is 

 a small brown beetle a little over one- 

 fourth of an inch in length, quite 

 robust, and moderately covered with 

 very short, fine hair. The larva is 

 pale yellow in color, very evenly cylin- 

 drical, and very highly polished. 

 When full grown the larva measures 

 about an inch in length and is about 

 as thick as the lead in a lead pencil. These wireworms will be 

 readily recognized by the singly pointed ninth abdominal segment 

 and the two black spots on the upper side of this segment near its 

 base. 



This is one of the most common wireworms of the northeastern and 

 middle western United States. A report of this species as a pest in 

 the dry-farming regions of TVashington State 2 is undoubtedly a 



Fig. 2. — The wheat wireworm 

 [Agriotes mancus) : a, Adult bee- 

 tle ; b, larva : c, side view of last 

 segment of larva. All enlarged. 

 (From Chittenden.) 



1 Sandberg, G. El tilfalde af Coleopterlarvers tilhold i tarmkanalen hos et Menneske. 

 In Entomologisk Tidskrift. v. 11. p. 77-80, 1890. 



- Seobey, J. O'B. Wireworms. Washington Experiment Station. (State Agricultural 

 College and School of Science, i Bulletin 4. p. 75-80, 3 figs., May. 1892. 



