18 BULLETIN 156, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Webster found pupex in the ground August 19, 1885, at La 
Fayette, Ind. 
At the Hagerstown Laboratory over 100 larve of this genus are 
under observation. Those that emerged as adults this year pupated 
between the end of July and the middle of August. The pupal 
stage varied in duration from 12 to 22 days. 
The adults do not leave the pupal cells, however, until the follow- 
ing spring. Mr. Webster found adults of M/. communis in pupal 
cells on March 17, 1894, at Wooster, Ohio, and the writer found 
an adult in a wheat field at Hagerstown, Md., on November 22, 1912. 
This adult was in a cell with its pupal and last larval exuvia. The 
cell was 1 inch below the surface, in the drill row in which several 
consecutive plants had been killed. 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
The larve of the genus J/elanotus, so far as our observations go, 
are confined to poorly drained and usually to heavy, sour soil. In 
making a survey of Birch Creek and Eel Creek bottoms in Clay 
County, Ind., we were informed by nearly all of the farmers that up 
to within the past four years wireworms caused very large annual 
losses to corn growers, while for the past three years this pest has 
been quite unknown to them. Coincident with the disappearance of 
the wireworms we find that the land was tile-drained on most of the 
farms. That the tile drainage of the land was actually responsible 
for the disappearance of the wireworms is more than we are prepared 
to.say. However, the coincidence is very suggestive. 
WIREWORMS OF MINOR IMPORTANCE. 
The following species, though not serious pests to cereal and for- 
age crops over eXtensive areas, are, during certain seasons, very 
destructive in restricted localities. 
The wireworms belonging to the genus Limonius are among the 
most important of this group. In 1909 the writer received report of 
serious damage being done to corn and potatoes at Spokane, Wash. 
The outbreak was investigated and proved to be very severe, but at 
the time no larvee were reared. This year (1914), through the kind- 
ness of Mr. William Tews, of Spokane, the writer received a large.. 
number of these wireworms with the report of another serious out- 
break. From this material we succeeded in rearing adults which 
are Limonius (species undetermined). The confused wireworm 
(Limonius confusus Lec.) has made its appearance in Illinois* 
within the last few years, and although its principal damage was 
confined to potatoes, it was also destructive to corn. The beetle is 
1 Davis, J. J. Preliminary report on the more important insects of the truck gardens 
of Illinois. Jn Ill. Farmers’ Inst. i6th Ann. Rpt., p. 216-263, 42 figs. Springfield, 1911. 
Wireworms. Limonius confusus Lec., p. 251, figs. 36-37. 
