WIREWOBMS ATTACKING CEEEAL AND FORAGE CROPS. 23 



small, about one-fourth of an inch in length. They are yellow or 

 reddish yellow in color, with more or less black marking. The wire- 

 worms are about one-half of an inch long when full grown. They 

 are depressed forms with two prongs on the ninth abdominal seg- 

 ment and are yellowish colored, except the head and first joint, which 

 are brownish. 



In the general bureau note files, as well as those of the branch of 

 Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations, are many notes referring 

 to Drasterius elegans as predaceous, and also many other notes 

 referring to this species as a pest to crops. None of these notes is 

 at all conclusive, however, and in many cases it is very probable 

 that the form attacking corn and wheat is really the abbreviated 

 wireworm {Cryptohypnus abbreviatus (Say) ) , and it may be that the 

 predaceous form is Drasterius amabilis, which the writer finds in 

 many collections under the name D. elegans. 



Mr. Theodore Pergande, of this bureau, received several larvae of 

 Drasterius amabilis from Manhattan, Ivans., on May 3, 1877. 1 He 

 says that these larvae were found preying on the eggs of Melanoplus 

 spretus. On June 20 some of them were killed and eaten by mites, so 

 that nothing but the shell was left. June 25 the other larvae were 

 completely covered with small mites, so that they could scarcely 

 move, and he believed that probably they would die, also. 



These mites to which Mr. Pergande refers were evidently the 

 hypopial stage of some tyroglyphid. In all probability the Drasterius 

 larvae ate one another, as this is a common occurrence when these 

 larvae are placed together in a rearing cage. He goes on to say: 



May 31, 1878. another larva of this species about half grown was placed with 

 an Epicanta larva. It has eaten the Epicauta larva. June 18 pupated. July 

 9 issued. 



This note gives a considerably longer pupal period than that ob- 

 served by the writer at Hagerstown. In another note under the same 

 number there is a record of the finding of a larva of this species with- 

 in a potato stalk which was infested with Trichobaris trinotata Say, 

 and it was probably feeding on these larvae. 



The writer found a very young Drasterius amabilis larva eating a 

 pupa of Meromyza americana Fitch on July 9, 1912, at Hagerstown, 

 Md. Mr. George Dimmock says that "this species (D. amabilis) 

 devours locust eggs." 2 



Drasterius amabilis is very common in western Maryland, where 

 the adults can be found under stones or rubbish from the middle 

 of September until early in the spring. 



iU. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Mem. XII, Note 762P, May 3-June 25, 1S77. 



2 Standard Natural History, edited by J. S. Kingsley, v. 2, p. 361. Boston, 1884. 

 " * * * a few of these larvse are carnivorous, the larvae of Drasterius amabilis, in the 

 United States, being known to devour locusts' eggs." 



