WIREWORMS ATTACKING CEREAL AND FORAGE CROPS. Ta: 
development and were feeding on the seed, which had been planted 
on May 10 and 17, eating out the kernels and leaving only empty 
hulls. Usually the roots of such plants as had escaped were not 
damaged. The particular field under observation had been in oats 
in 1908 and in wheat in 1907. On June 1 Mr. Reeves again ex- 
amined this field and then found the stand very poor, and the wire- 
worms seemed to be more numerous than when he first examined it, 
as from 18 to 20 were to be found in nearly every hill. At this point 
the investigations were turned over to the writer. 
On June 20 the entire field was harrowed and reseeded, the first 
seeding being absolutely destroyed by these wireworms. The second 
seeding started very well and looked as though it would succeed. 
Many wireworms were still present, however, and by July 8 the 
second seeding was about half destroyed and had to be planted in by 
hand. The season was then so well advanced that the crop was 
practically a failure. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
Early in May the beetles emerge from the pupal cells in which 
they pass the winter, a number of beetles having been caught at 
Pullman, Wash., by Mr. Reeves as early as May 5, 1908. They 
are about in enormous numbers during late May and early June. 
On May 28, 1910, the writer collected over a hundred of these 
beetles in a few minutes from some rosebushes in a fence row along 
the side of a last year’s wheat field. The beetles continue abundant 
until early July, and by the middle of this month they have all dis- 
appeared but a few stragglers. During June the beetles mate and 
lay their eggs. The larve feed during this summer and pass their 
first winter about half grown. They resume feeding the following 
spring and continue to feed during the second summer, passing the 
second winter as nearly mature larve. The larval life is completed 
early the third spring, when they transform to pupz during late 
June and early July. The last transformation takes place in late 
July and early August, and the adult beetles remain in the pupal 
cells from that time until early the fourth spring. Thus the wire- 
worm, as such, is in the ground during the growing season of three 
years. 
FOOD PLANTS. 
The beetles of this species were observed in large numbers during 
May, 1910, at Pullman, Wash., on wild rosebushes, where they were 
apparently eating the petals of the unopened rosebuds, as many as 
10 beetles having been counted on a single bud and the buds being 
