ert rl 
. 
WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. 17 
Gyll. (fig. 5) and J/. fissilis (Say) as among the important corn pests 
of Illinois. Webster found J/. communis a very serious pest in 
Indiana and Ohio; Comstock and Slingerland consider J/. communis 
one of the worst wireworms in New York State; and Swenk records 
serious depredations of J/. cribulosus Lec., I. communis, and M. 
jissilis in Nebraska. 
In 1907 Mr. E. O. G. Kelly found a species of Melanotus attacking 
corn in North Dakota. In 1910 Mr. W. W. Yothers, of this bureau, 
investigated a very severe outbreak of these wireworms at Corry, Pa. 
At the time he visited the fields as many as 7 to 15 larvee were to be 
found in nearly every hill. This field had been broken from sod in 
1908. In 1912 Mr. Kelly found the larvee of A/elanotus communis 
so numerous at Wellington, Kans., that they entirely destroyed his 
experimental corn plantings. He also found the larvee of this species 
attacking kafir seed at Mulvane, Kans., in the spring of 1912. In 
places they had completely eaten out the seed for spaces of from 
4 to 6 feet in the drill rows. In 1914 we received reports of damage 
by wireworms belonging to the genus Melanotus from seven localities 
in Indiana, seven in Wisconsin, six in Maryland, three in Michigan, 
three in Iowa, and one each in Alabama, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, 
North Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. 
Several species occur on the west coast, and J/. communis is re- 
ported as a pest to wheat in Garfield County, Wash.,’ but the writer 
is inclined to believe that the pest in this case was either a false wire- 
worm or a species of Corymbites. 
Mr. Pergande records? this species as attacking lettuce roots, 
wheat, and potatoes. 
LiFE HISTORY. 
The adults of these wireworms are flying about in late April, 
May, and June, when they undoubtedly deposit their eggs in the 
grasslands. The larve spend two to five years in the soil. That any 
have so short a life-cycle period as two years is not at all certain. 
We have, however, in our outdoor insectary, larvee received from 
Inman, Nebr., April 19, 1912, subject to very nearly natural con- 
ditions. These larve were well grown when received and were at 
least of the 1911 generation. At the date of this writing (October, 
1914) they are larve. They have passed the summers of 1911, 1912, 
1913, and 1914 in the soil, and if they pupate next summer (1915) 
the adults will, without doubt, remain in the pupal cells until the 
spring of 1916, making, in this case, five full years from egg to egg. 
These beetles pupate during July and early August. 
1Scobey, J. OB. Wireworms. Wash. Exp. Sta. (State Agr. Coll. and School of Sci.), 
Bull. 4, p. 75, May, 1892. 
2U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Notes, v. 4, No. 2884. 
61121°—Bull. 156—15 3 
