82 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



diameter, their form suggesting the name Wire-worm. 

 Their injury to the Potato crop is perhaps more gener- 

 ally noticed, as it is sometimes completely ruined by 

 them; they also do much damage to Indian Corn, the 

 cereal grains and the grasses. Plowing, both in fall and 

 early spring with frequent harrowing, will expose them 

 to the birds, who are the chief help. In England, previ- 

 ous to planting the potato crop, potatoes, with a stick 

 thrust into them to mark the place, are buried here and 

 there to serve as traps; they are taken up at intervals, 

 and any worms that may have collected on them des- 

 troyed. 



FALSE WIRE-WORMS. 



Several worm-like creatures found in the soil are pop- 

 ularly called wire-worms, which are not the larvae of the 

 Snap-beetles; indeed are not any kind of a larva. These 

 are now regarded as belonging as to a sub-order of insects, 

 the Myriajjods, which includes Centipedes, Millipedes, etc. 

 The most common representatives of these belong to the 

 genus lulus. They have worm-like bodies, made up of 

 numerous horny divisions, most of which bear two pairs 

 of legs, and there are two short feelers at the head. 

 They are of a blackish or dark-brown color, and when 



disturbed, coil 

 themselves into a 

 ring. They un- 

 rig. 53.-rAi.SE wiKE-woRM (Mus). meta- 

 morphosis like the 



proper insects, from which they are also distinguished 

 by their numerous legs. Our species are from an 

 inch to an inch and a half long, but in tropical 

 countries they reach six and seven inches. Many 

 of them feed upon decayed vegetable and animal matter, 

 but some of them feed upon the roots of living plants. 



