49 



Elater, Linneus. 



The insects belonging to the above genus are 

 usually in our country termed Skipper, or Click 

 Beetles, They are exceedingly numerous, and more 

 than a thousand species will be found in the dif- 

 ferent European cabinets. The tropical species are 

 many of them of considerable magnitude, and com- 

 pared with the Buprestidae they must yield to them 

 in splendour and colouring, although some of them 

 are richly metallic, and are diversified with singular 

 markings. The larva, of one of these beetles be- 

 longing to the genus Cataphagus, commits great 

 ravages on our crops. They are chiefly root- 

 feeders, and are known to farmers under the name 

 of Wireworms. In some years they have greatly 

 damaged the wheat, in others the hop plants. In 

 1838, the potatoe crop in the counties of Salop, 

 Hereford, and Worcester, were reduced nearly to 

 a third of the usual annual produce. The most 

 effectual method of getting rid of them is to employ 

 children to handpick them, having previously at- 

 tracted them to baits, by placing potatoe slices 

 near their haunts. The larvae, when collected, 

 should be destroyed by scalding water, and may 

 then be given to poultry, or thrown away. 



Linnean Species. 



Sp. 1. Flabellicornis. — Now a Tetralobus of Ser- 

 ville. Several species have been confounded with 



H 



