Eighth Report of the statu Entomologist* 



9 ( J 



munis (Gyll.). The perfect insects into which they develop— known 

 from their habit, when placed on their back, of springing into the airin 

 order to regain their feet in the fall — as"snap- 

 ping-bettles," are represented in part by Figure 



40. Figure II shows, in enlargement, one of 

 the wire- worms in the act of burrowing into 

 and feeding on a kernel of corn. Figure 42 

 represents one of the common cut-worms, 

 Agrotis clandestine!, in the well-known curled 

 attitude that it assumes upon being unearthed. 

 Figure 43 is one of the thousand-legged worms — Fig. 40.— Mklanotus 



JldllS CCerideOCinctUS Wood. communis, natural size 



rp, t -. a1 ,. ., and enlarged. (After 



Ine wire-worms — members or the family ol Fitch.) 

 Eiaterida — are very numerous in species, but the early stages 

 and life-histories of but a few have been studied, and even those 

 are imperfectly known. Their faithful study 

 is a great desideratum, but unfortunately the 

 difficulties that it presents has deterred most 

 of our entomologists from its prosecution. 

 The Country Gentleman has presented its 



Fig. 41.— ?A. wire-worm at- 



tacking corn. 

 Fitch.) 



(if ter 



readers with many excellent article- 



on wire 



worms, remedies for them, etc., which may be con 

 suited to advantage by those who are sufferers from their depredations. 



Among these, the following issues may be cited: May 8, 18' 



p. 281 



June 14, 1877, p. 377; August 5, 1877, p. 220; December 11, 1879, p. 

 793; February 8, 1883, p. 105; May 31, 1883, p. 441; November 29, 

 1883, p. 961; April 12, 1888, p. 284. There are also many others, 

 which may readily be found by turning to the elaborate and careful 

 indexes that accompany each volume. — C.-G., November 29, 1888. 



Fig. 42. — The w-marked 

 cut-worm of agrotis 



CLANDESTINA. 



Fig. 43 



Thousand-legged worm, Jdlus cosru 



LEOCINCTUS Wood. 



Note — A careful study of wire-worms, extending over three years, has 

 since been made at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., by Professors Corn- 

 stock and Slingerland, and the results published in " Bulletin 33 of the 

 Cornell University Experiment Station," for November, 1891. The 

 experiments conducted in tV<e course of the study embraced trials with 

 various insecticides for the destruction of the larva 1 and beetles; killing 



