FAMILY XXXVII. — ELATERIM. 



The larva is' one of the smaller injurious wire 

 worms, often doing much damage to corn and 

 wheat, It is of a light waxy yellow color, nine 

 to 12 mm. in length, sparsely hairy and consid- 

 erably flattened in form; the last segment is 

 pearly tlat, rugose above, without bristle-bearing 

 tubercles and with an acute apical notch. (Fig. 

 282 a, ) It attacks sprouting corn and wheat, 

 especially that planted on sod, eating part of the 

 softened grain and boring up into the tender 

 stem. No effective remedy has yet been discov- 

 ered, though fall plowing for corn will greatly 

 lessen their numbers. 



D. amabilis Lee, color of elegans, length 3 

 mm., is recorded from Maryland, Ohio and 

 Texas. 



Megapentkes limbalis ITerbst, black, disk of 

 thorax (in great part) and sides of elytra red- 

 dish-yellcw. length 8-11 mm., occurs in the 

 Middle and Southern States and has been re- 

 corded f r mi Cincinnati. 



XXVIII. Ludius Esch. 1829. (Or., "a stage 

 player or gladiator.") 

 Large black or dark reddish-brown Elaters, 

 having the prosternal sutures concave on the outer side; tarsi 

 simple, pubescent beneath ; hind coxal plates less suddenly dilated 

 on inner side and strongly toothed at insertion of the thighs ; sec- 

 ond and third antenna! joints always small, third a little shorter 

 than second, the two together shorter than fourth, the terminal 

 joint suddenly narrower near apex, presenting the appearance of a 

 false joint. (Pig. 3, No. 1.) For a synopsis of the genus see 

 LeConte— Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, XII, 1884, 45-49. 



1302 (4271). Ludius attenuates Say, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist., N. Y., I, 1825, 

 257 ; ibid. I, 392 ; II, 600. 

 Elongate, moderately robust, gradually narrower behind the middle 

 Dark reddish-brown or black, feebly shining, clothed with very fine silky 

 pubescence ; thorax usually reddish with elytra black. Thorax as long as 

 wide, or longer in the male, gradually narrower from base to apex, sides 

 feebly curved ; hind angles rather short, strongly carinate ; disk coarsely 

 but not densely punctate. Elytra not wider than thorax, rapidly narrowing 

 to apex, tips acute ; surface obsoletely substriate, densely and rather roughly 

 punctate. Cavity of mesosternum into which prosternal spine fits with sides 

 parallel and elevated. Length 14-22 mm. 



Fig. 282a. 



X 



(After Forbes.) 



