16 



BULLETIN 156, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



seed present to sprout, and the entire crop of weeds is subsequently 

 destroyed by the summer plowing. By the present method of farming 

 the weed seeds are turned down to such a depth that many can not 

 germinate, but lie dormant and sprout whenever they happen to be 

 brought to the surface by subsequent cultivation. One crop of weed 

 seed is in this manner often a pest for several succeeding years. 



A slight variation of these suggestions will readily adapt them 

 to the more humid sections inhabited bv the inflated wireworm. 



THE CORN WIREWORMS. 



Several species of beetles belonging to the genus Melanotus are 

 recorded as pests to cereal and forage crops in the United States. 



The beetles usually range from 

 medium-sized to large forms 

 measuring from one-half to 

 three-fourths inch in length. 

 They vary in color from light 

 reddish-brown to almost black. 

 The beetles of this genus can 

 always be distinguished with 

 a low-power lens by the comb- 

 like claws on the last tarsal seg- 

 ment. 



The wireworms are reddish- 

 brown in color, about 1| inches 

 long, cylindrical in shape, and 

 always with the last joint of 

 the body ending in three incon- 

 spicuous lobes. 



Many species of this genus in- 

 habit decaying logs, and several 

 writers record them as predaceous. 1 A note in the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology files, 2 by Mr. Pergande, records a larva of this genus as feed- 

 ing on the eggs of a locust, or grasshopper. A similar record, 3 dated 

 September 19, 1881, is made by the same observer, wherein a Me- 

 lanotus larva was found with locust eggs and reared to the adult con- 

 dition by feeding on potato and dead beetle (lamellicorn) larva?. 



These wireworms are a pest to cereal and forage crops in the Mid- 

 dle Atlantic States, the Xew England States, and in the Mississippi 

 Valley from Kansas northward. Forbes places Melanotus communis 



Fig. 5. — One of the corn wireworms (Mela- 

 notus communis) : a, Adult; o, larva; 

 c, last segments of same ; d, pupa. All 

 enlarged. (From Chittenden.) 



1 Perrls, Edouard. Histoire des inseetes du pin maritime. In Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 

 ser. 3, T. 2, p. 139 (seances du 13. Avrll, 1853). 



2 TJ. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Notes, v. 4. No. 2883, Oct. 9, 1882. 

 S U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Notes, v. 4, No. 2884, Sept. 19, 1884. 



