WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL 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 1s 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 Prasterius amabilis, which the writer finds in 
many collections under the name 7). elegans. 
Mr. Theodore Pergande, of this bureau, received several larve of 
Drasterius amabilis from Manhattan, Kans., on May 3, 1877.1. He 
says that these larvee were found preying on the eggs of J/elanoplus 
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 larvee 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. Inall probability the Drasterius 
larve ate one another, as this is a common occurrence when these 
larve 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 Epicauta larva. It has eaten the HEpicauta 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 Z'richobaris trinotata Say, 
and it was probably feeding on these larvee. 
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 (2). amabilis) 
devours locust eggs.” ? 
Prasterius 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. 
10. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Mem. XII, Note 762P, May 8—June 25, 1877. 
2Standard Natural History, edited by J. S: Kingsley, v. 2, p. 561: Boston, 1884: 
“* * * 9 few of these larve are carnivorous, the larve of Drasterius amabilis, in the 
United States, being known to devour locusts’ eggs.” 
