WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. 11 



development and were feeding on the seed, which had been planted 

 on May 10 and IT, eating out the kernels and leaving only empty 

 hulls. Usually the roots of such plants as had escaped were not 

 damaged. The particular field under observation had been in oats 

 in 1908 and in wheat in 1907. On June 1 Mr. Reeves again ex- 

 amined this field and then found the stand very poor, and the wire- 

 worms seemed to be more numerous than when he first examined it, 

 as from 18 to 20 were to be found in nearly every hill. At this point 

 the investigations were turned over to the writer. 



On June 20 the entire field was harrowed and reseeded, the first 

 seeding being absolutely destroyed by these wireworms. The second 

 seeding started very well and looked as though it would succeed. 

 Many wireworms were still present, however, and by July 8 the 

 second seeding was about half destroyed and had to be planted in by 

 hand. The season was then so well advanced that the crop was 

 practically a failure. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



Early in May the beetles emerge from the pupal cells in which 

 they pass the winter, a number of beetles having been caught at 

 Pullman, Wash., by Mr. Beeves as early as May 5, 1908. They 

 are about in enormous numbers during late May and early June. 

 On May 28, 1910, the writer collected over a hundred of these 

 beetles in a few minutes from some rosebushes in a fence row along 

 the side of a last year's wheat field. The beetles continue abundant 

 until early July, and by the middle of this month they have all dis- 

 appeared but a few stragglers. During June the beetles mate and 

 lay their eggs. The larva? feed during this summer and pass their 

 first winter about half grown. They resume feeding the following 

 spring and continue to feed during the second summer, passing the 

 second winter as nearly mature larvae. The larval life is completed 

 early the third spring, when they transform to pupse during late 

 June and early July. The last transformation takes place in late 

 July and early August, and the adult beetles remain in the pupal 

 cells from that time until early the fourth spring. Thus the wire- 

 worm, as such, is in the ground during the growing season of three 

 years. 



FOOD PLANTS. 



The beetles of this species were observed in large numbers during 

 May, 1910, at Pullman, Wash., on wild rosebushes, where they were 

 apparently eating the petals of the unopened rosebuds, as many as 

 10 beetles having been counted on a single bud and the buds being 



