196 
Ohservations on the various Insects 
fourteen days in the pupa state, when the beetle is produced. 
This dangerous enemy has been known to destroy one-fourth part 
of the crop by gradually eating the roots up to llie crown of the 
plant where the leaves arise. Not only ought the earth to be 
immediately removed from the roots of the affected plants, the 
worms taken away, and the earth returned to its place, but, if 
necessary, the lettuces had better be dug up, and the worms 
which are concealed in the roots or in the surrounding mould can 
be destroyed : thus the rest of the crop may be saved ; otherwise 
the worms will travel from dying to living plants until all the 
lettuces have fallen a prey to this annoying enemy. The beetle 
is particularly attached to the flowers of the Unibellatce, and to 
nettles ; it is therefore most important for the gardener not to 
neglect destroying the fools'-parsley, hemlock, and all similar wild- 
flowers, which harbour them and constantly spring up on the 
banks and hedges round his grounds. 
As it is in the field so it is in the garden, " the Wireworm is 
particularly destructive for a few years in gardens recently con- 
verted from pasture ground. In the Botanic Garden at Hull 
thus circumstanced a great proportion of the annuals sown in 
1813 were destroyed by it."* At Bordean House, Hants, 
Captain Chawner's flower-borders have been frequently infested 
by the Wireworms, which ate into the base of the stems of the 
pansies and carnations, ascending them sometimes 2 inches above 
the ground. They revel also on the roots of the dahlias and 
lobelias. On the 5th of May I received two Wireworms of dif- 
ferent sizes from a flower-garden in Surrey, and precisely the 
same as those from Hampshire ; towards the end of the month 
four examples of the E- rujicaudis (fig. 12), and one of E.fulvipcs 
(fig. 33, pi. J) were found on the side of the house there, most 
likely bred from the borders. About the same time three very 
small Wireworms were found in the flower-garden, and the be- 
ginning of August 1 received a pupa, I believe, of rujicaudis, with 
tiie exuvia; of others and their earthen cases, from the same locality. 
Mr. Smith, in the ' Florist's Magazine' says — "The Wireworms 
invariably attack the pink and the carnation at the bottom of the 
stem near the root, and make holes through it in every direction, 
while the only indication of their presence is the entiie destruc- 
tion of the j)lant. The larva is ui general found in the loam, 
therefore great care should be taken, in sweetening that soil, not 
to allow one to escape when it is turned over; and their colour 
being a hght brown, makes the finding of them more diflicult." 
Wishing to render the history ol the Wireworms as complete as 
my materials will allow, and being greatly attached to the garden, 
which may be considered a farm in miniature, I have made this 
*Kirby ami Si)oiu-c's Iiitioil. to I'liit., Gt-h edit., vol. i. p. 117. 
