Ee a a 
WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. a) 
Monocrepidius auritus Ubst. is also quite common about Hagers- 
town, adults being often found hibernating with Drasterius amabilis 
Lec. 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 larve 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. Larvee were found 
in hills of recently seeded sorghum. No locality accompanies this 
note. On July 4 one of the larve 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. Ainshe 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 larve were collected on No- 
vember 4, 1911, and by December of that year one of the larvee 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 (J/onocrepidius ves- 
pertinus (Fab.), fig.6). Mr. Kelly has found the larve of this species 
1U. S: Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Notes, v. 2, No. 857; June 6, 1881. 
