184 
Observations on the various Insects 
nished with six short legs, a pair being attached to each near the 
hinder margin ; they are nearly alike and four-jointed {ni), the 
joints being rough with short brown spines, the apex furnished 
with a strong claw, slighll}- curved and nut-brown (»). 
When the Wireworra has arrived at maturity, it descends a 
considerable depth into the earth, forms an oval cell there (fig. 10) 
entirely composed of the surrounding particles of soil, and not 
even lined with silk as in the Turnip Saw-fly ; it then casts its 
skin again, and becomes a pupa or chrysalis, generally, it seems, at 
the end of July or beginning of August ; it is long and narrow in 
form, like the perfect insect, but it is of a yellowish-white (fig. 11) ; 
there are tW'O minute spines projecting from the anterior angles of 
the thorax ; all the oral organs are visible, the horns and legs 
are folded or incumbent upon the breast, and the wing-cases as 
well as the wings are small and the least developed of any part 
(fig. 11*); the scutel and abdominal segments are distinct, the 
apex being furnished with two moveable spines and two lobes 
terminated by nipples in the middle beneath. Of course at this 
period the animal is at rest, being deprived of the power of loco- 
motion, and is consequently no longer injurious. Several were 
found in this state on the 26lh of July, 1841, and Bierkander 
says that in the month of July his Wireworms became pupa?, 
from which the Elaters emerged in their perfect state about the 
10th of August ; it has also been elsewhere recorded that they 
remain in the pupa state two or three weeks, but many no doubt 
pass the winter buried and protected from casualties and the 
rigour of that inclement season ; when, however, the appointed 
time comes, they burst from their shrouds and the earthy tombs 
they inhabit, and rising through the soil arrive at the surface 
changed to perfect beetles, but of a whilish colour, soft, and ex- 
tremely tender ; exposed to the air and light, their bodies harden 
and their colour gradually changes, so that in a few hours they 
have attained the horny coat which covers them and assumed the 
tints which the Author of nature has assigned to the species. 
The parts of the animal which were lately indistinctly seen as 
through a veil arc now distinctly visible, and .all the members are 
liljerated to give action to its body and animation to all its senses. 
They walk and run like dogs, with their heads and trunks de- 
clining, their noses dose to the ground ; when they leap, their legs 
are apjilied closely to their bodies, and by the same means they 
fall down when tlie plants are apjiroac licd upon which they are 
restinir- J hese Elaters (figs. l'2aud"25) have small heads and 
eyes, the latter minute, heinisj)herical, and reticulated, a portion 
being fre(juenlly ( onccaled bcncalli the margin of the thorax ; tlie 
two horns or antenna: are generally slender and eleven-jointed 
(fig. 13), and received when at rest into two grooves bcneadi the 
