188 
Observations on the various Insects 
in May they were congregated upon a yellow ranunculus or 
buttercup in an ozier-liolt in Norfolk. They abound also on grass, 
in hedges, corn-fields. Sec. I have received specimens as late as 
July, with the pupae and exuvia", from Surrey. Rouche savs that 
the larvae live sometimes in great multitudes in dung and vege- 
table earth ;* and it is very extraordinary, but two specimens in 
my collection were found the 25th of May in the stem of a docls, 
and apparently feeding upon it. 
In the other genus ATiious,f Mhich is principally distin- 
guished from Agriotes by the structure of the feet, there is only 
one species supposed to affect the crops, which has received, how- 
ever, a variety of names in allusion to the rufous or rust-colour of 
the belly and tail, being called 
4. E. ruficaudis by Gj/U. (fig. 12) ; E. sputator by Olivier ; 
E. haemorrhoidalis by Fahriciiis ; and E. analis by Herhst. It is 
hmg, narrow, piceous, and shining, clothed with ochreous and 
longish hairs: the antenna; are dusky, and similar in their relative 
proportions to E. obsciirus, but they are a little longer and com- 
pressed ; the basal joint is stout, second and third slender, the 
remainder obtrigonate, the apical one is narrower, the tip conical : 
the head and thorax are black, thickly and minutely punctured ; 
the former is semi-orbicular : the clypcus truncated and reflexed ; 
the latter is much longer than broad, a little narrowed towards tlie 
anterior angles, the posterior spines are short and trigonate, and 
the margin beneath projects considerably in a semicircle to re- 
ceive the head : scutel black : elytra reddish brown, twice as long 
as the head and thorax, being rather broader than the latter, but 
linear, the apex ovate, and the tip of each rounded ; they are 
minutely punctured, with nine stria> on each : the abdomen is fer- 
ruginous : legs short, ferruginous: feet apjiearing four-jointed 
until magnified ; very pubescent beneath, the basal joint the 
longest, second and third decreasing in length, slender at the base, 
and somewhat trumpet-shaped, the apPx being furnished with a 
membranous margin ; the fourth is minute ; the fifth long, 
slender, and terminated by two simple claws (fig. 27, d) : length 
G lines, breadth \\ line. Abundant from April to the end of 
June in corn-fields, on nettles, on coiinnons, in pastures, &c. 
The beginning of June, 1842, I observed tins beetle flying about 
hedges and banks in Dorsetshire, and I had previously found it in 
M.iy by brushing the oak-leaves and underwood in the extensive 
woods in the neighbourhood of Wilton, near Salisbury. 
There is j)robably scarcely any land where the Wireworms 
* Naturgescl)ichte der Inseckfen, p. 187; but from Boufh6's figure of 
ilio tail, I suspect it is not the larva of E. lineal iis, but of another .species 
of Eliiter. 
t Curtiss Guide, Gen. 309, No. 50. 
