182 
Observations on the various Insects 
Of the species of beetles producing these larvae (for such the 
Wireworms are), there are not more than eleven I believe that 
will require our attention; they belong to the Order CotEOP- 
TERA, they form the Family Elaterid.e and the Genus 
Elater of Linnaeus, which has since been divided into several 
others by modern naturalists. These beetles have been called 
Elaters from a peculiar power they have of leaping up like a 
tumbler when placed on their backs, and for this reason they 
have received the English appellations of Spring-beetles and 
Skip-jacks, and from the noise which the apparatus makes when 
they leap ihey are also called Snap or Click beetles, and likewise 
Blacksmiths. The species we will enumerate and describe here- 
after, and detail at present their economy : after pairing, the female 
beetle lays her eggs; the eggs produce little larvae called Wire- 
worms, which grow and change to pupae or chrysalides, and from 
these again emerge the beetles. 
Whether the eggs (pi. I. fig. 1), which are nearly globose or 
slightly oval, yellowish white, and very minute,* are laid in the 
earth close to the root of a plant, or between the enveloping 
leaves or sheaths near the base of the stalk, I am unable to de- 
termine ; it is a very desirable part of their economy to be ascer- 
tained, but hitherto I have endeavoured in vain to detect a female 
depositing her eggs or to find any, except by dissection, when I 
have observed them close to the base of the oviduct : the little 
worms produced from these eggs must be almost invisible to the 
naked eye ; they grow very slowly, and eventually attain the length 
of three-quarters of an inch, rarely eleven lines. f These are the 
true Wireworms (fig. 2), so named from their cylindrical form, 
smooth surface, and extreme toughness. In this state they live 
five years, as proved by Bierkander,* casting off their skins thrice, 
probably, like other larvap, as they increase in stature. I have 
examined many of these exuviae, which are brown ; and the animals 
perform this extraordinary moult like other caterpillars, by split- 
ting the horny skin along the thorax, and drawing themselves out 
at the aperture, leaving (like a snake) a perfect cxuvia of every 
part, including eyes, horns, feet, and it is believed also of the in- 
ternal organs. § Immediately after this operation, the Wireworms 
are very tender and of a whitish colour ; but as soon as they recover 
from this great effort of nature, they move about with the greatest 
facility, gliding along and soon burrowing into the earth when 
* Those of E. pcc/hiicornis are oval, whitish, and sliining. De Geer's 
Hist, di's Ins., vol. iv. p. 143. 
t ThcMC arc twelve Hnes in an incli. 
;|: Conmnin. to Board of Asjii., vol. iv. p. 413; and Trans. Acad. Scien. 
in Sweden, vol. for 1770, p. 28.'5. 
\J Vide Mr. 11. J, Ashton's paper in Trans. P"nt. Soc, vol. iii. p. 157. 
