WIEEWOEMS ATTACKING CEEEAL AND FOEAGE CEOPS. 19 



about three-sixteenths of an inch long, reddish-brown in color, and 

 moderately hairy. The wireworm is about three-fourths of an inch 

 in length and is depressed, with a shallow emargination m the ter- 

 minal segment; the color, as in the beetle, is reddish-brown. 



The species is recorded as attacking corn, potatoes, tomatoes, 

 onions, cabbage, radishes, turnips, horseradish, and spinach. It bur- 

 rows into the underground parts of the plants, quite ruining them, for 

 market purposes, and in the case of corn, tomatoes, cabbage, and 

 onions often kills the plant. This species does not seem to attack 

 beans, peas, cucumbers, melons, rhubarb, lettuce, and peppers, and 

 these crops might be of value in clearing a badly infested field prior 

 to seeding it to grain. 



The sugar-beet wireworm (Limonius calif ornicus Mann.) is a 

 very serious pest to alfalfa and corn over restricted areas m Cali- 

 fornia. 1 Alfalfa is so badly infested in certain localities that it 

 has to be plowed out and reseeded every three or four years. This 

 species lays its eggs during late April. The eggs hatch during late 

 May and the larvae spend the remainder of that season and the whole 

 of the two succeeding seasons in the ground. They pupate during 

 July and August of their third summer, the adults remaining in the 

 pupal cells until the spring of the fourth year. Alfalfa fields badly 

 infested with this wireworm should be plowed out immediately after 

 the first crop is harvested and harrowed several times before re- 

 seeding. Land intended for corn should be plowed in late July or 

 August of the year preceding cropping. Land in corn should be 

 deeply cultivated during August. 



The abbreviated wireworm (Cryptohypnus abhreviatus (Say)) oc- 

 curs over the entire northern part of the United States, being quite 

 common in New England and New York, and is recorded from New 

 Jersey by Smith.' 2 In the upper Mississippi Valley this species is 

 also a pest and specimens have been collected in Utah and Wash- 

 ington. 



The beetles of this species are very small, being little over three- 

 sixteenths inch in length and quite broad and flattened. The color 

 is very dark brown to almost black and the forepart of the body is 

 very shiny. An obscure yellowish spot ornaments each wing cover 

 near the tip. The legs are also obscure reddish-yellow. 



The wireworm is about one-half inch long, flattened, with a pair of 

 backwardly directed prongs on the ninth abdominal segment, and is 

 pale yellow in color. 



Owing to the confusion of this wireworm with Drasterius elegans 

 Fab., the literature relative to either of these insects is very unre- 



1 Graf, John E. A ri-eliminary Report of the Sugar-Beet Wireworm. U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 Bur. Ent., Bui. 123, 68 p., 9 figs., 23 pi., Feb. 28, 1914. 



2 Smith, J. B. Catalogue of the Insects Found in New Jersey, p. 159. Trenton, 1890. 



