WIEEWOBMS ATTACKING CEEEAL AND FOEAGE CEOPS. 21 



Monocrepidius auritus Hbst. is also quite common about Hagers- 

 town, adults being often found hibernating with Drasterius amabiUs 

 Lee. under stones. Mr. C. M. Packard, of the Hagerstown laboratory, 

 collected a pupa of this species in the insectary garden on August 11, 

 1913. The adult emerged from this pupa on August 16. This year 

 (1914) Mr. J. J. Davis sent the writer a large number of larvae of 

 this species from Indiana. The last two species will probably eventu- 

 ally be found to attack crops. 



The largest, and in the southwest the most important, species of 

 this genus is Monocrepidius lividus DeG. In the bureau files is a 

 note made by Mr. Pergande, dated June 6, 1881. 1 Larva? were found 

 in hills of recently seeded sorghum. No locality accompanies this 

 note. On July 1 one of the larvse transformed to a pupa, and on July 

 11 the adult issued, making the pupal period just a week. 



Mr. Kelly collected an adult in a hay pile March 21, 1911, and also 

 a larva of this species burrowing in a young corn plant at Welling- 

 ton, Kans., on June 11, 1910. This larva pupated on September 8, 

 but was not reared to an adult. He also collected an adult in an 

 alfalfa field on May 10 of that year. Another larva, supposed to be 

 this species, was collected June 12 and was kept alive in a rearing 

 cage until November 25, indicating that the species hibernates in 

 the larval state. The particular specimen, however, died during the 

 winter. 



During July, 1911, Mr. G. G. Ainslie found the adults of this spe- 

 cies on the fresh silk on the corn ears down in the tip of the husk. 

 He found them in the act of eating the corn silk and also the pollen. 



The writer, while investigating an outbreak of the " curlew bug " 

 {Sphenophorus callosus Oliv.) at Hartford, N. C., found several of 

 these wireworms in a cornfield. These larvse were collected on No- 

 vember 4, 1911, and by December of that year one of the larvae had 

 eaten all his comrades and had gone into hibernation in the rearing 

 cage in the office at Washington. The data relative to the life history 

 of this individual can not be relied upon as of value in determining 

 the normal life history, as the office was subjected to great extremes 

 of temperature that winter, often freezing at night and being over 

 80° F. by noon. However, this larva transformed to a pupa and 

 emerged as an adult between May 21 and June 7, 1912. This beetle 

 lived in the rearing cage without food until July 24 of that year. 

 Mr. G. G. Ainslie collected a larva of this species on March 25, 1914, 

 in sod land at Orlando, Fla. 



Undoubtedly second in importance, and in parts of the South 

 probably first, is the southern corn wireworm {Monocrepidius ves- 

 per.tinus (Fab.) , fig. 6) . Mr. Kelly has found the larvae of this species 



iTJ. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Notes, v. 2, No. 857, June 6, 1881. 



