74 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



plants at Lincoln, Nebr., doing even more damage than the cut- 

 worms. It was also said to have attacked other garden crops, but 

 these are not definitely recorded. 



In 1895 Prof. C. V. Piper published an article in the Northwest 

 Horticulturalist in which he refers to Eleodes larvae attacking garden 

 crops. 



In 1898 Mr. Theo. Pergande x notes having received from McPher- 

 son, Kans., two larvae of a tenebrionid with the statement that they 

 do serious damage to wheat in Salina County, Kans., by attacking 

 the grain when it becomes softened, destroying the germ. From one 

 of these larvae an adult was reared which proved to be Eleodes sutura- 

 lis Say. In the autumn of 1911 Mr. E. O. G. Kelly, of tins office, 

 found the wheat in southern Kansas attacked by an Eleodes larva 

 which may prove to belong to this latter species. 



In 1908 Mr. Myron Swenk, 3 assistant State entomologist of 

 Nebraska, reported Eleodes opaca Say as doing very serious damage 

 to wheat in Nebraska, in some instances 60 per cent of the seed 

 having been destroyed. 



The larvae were first found by the author in enormous numbers in 

 May, 1909, in a wheat field south of Pullman, Wash. The field was 

 entirely ruined and had to be reseeded, though these depredations 

 were not entirely due to the Eleodes, as a true wireworm, the larvae 

 of Corymbites injlatus Say, was also very numerous. 



On May 12 several adult Eleodes pimelioides Mann, were found at 

 a depth of about 4 inches below the surface in the field above men- 

 tioned, and more were found under boards and rubbish about the 

 fields. Many larvae were placed in flowerpot rearing cages with 

 wheat as food, and on July 3 a pupa was found in one of these cages. 

 On July 20 an adult Eleodes pimelioides emerged. Later examination 

 of several collections very clearly indicates that this species is far the 

 more predominant in the Palouse country. 



Other species known to occur in this region are Eleodes obscura Say 

 var. sulcipennis Mann., Eleodes Mspilabris Say var. teems Blaisd., 

 Eleodes extricata Say, Eleodes manni Blaisd., Eleodes Jiumeralis Lee, 

 Eleodes schwarzii Blaisd., and Eleodes nigrina Lee. 



In the spring of 1909, on examining an oat field at Govan, Wash., 

 that had been almost completely destroyed, many tenebrionid larvae, 

 Eleodes letclieri Blaisd. var. vandyJcei Blaisd., were found crawling 

 over the surface of the field. They had evidently been forced to 

 leave the ground by a heavy rain which fell the day before. On 

 digging in this field many more larvae were found about ready to 

 pupate. 



In the spring of 1910 the adults were found in enormous numbers 

 on the roadsides in the Big Bend region and in the middle of the 



Bureau of Entomology Notes, No. 8186. 2 Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 2, p. 332, 1909. 



