affecting the Turnips, Corn-crops, 8fc, 
219 
hollowed towards the base ; winofs ample ; legs moderately long, 
chesnut coloured ; tarsi tapering, basal joint the stoutest, and a 
little elongated; 4th, small; claws minute; length from 6 to 9 
lines, breadth from If to 2 and | (fig. 33). 
8. Is nearly allied to the Elatcr ohsciirus, pi. I., fig. 25, but it 
is smaller. The VVireworm of this species is said to aljound in 
grass fields, where it feeds with those of E- ohscurus and E. linea- 
tus ; the perfect insects are occasionally found in multitudes in 
marshy districts in the rejectamenta left by floods in Norfolk, 
Cambridgeshire, &c., and in the spring and summer months they 
are abundant everywhere. This has been called, I know not 
why, 
Elater (Agriotes) sputator, Linn., the spitting Click-beetle. It 
is reddish brown, clothed with short depressed ochreous pubes- 
cence ; antennse scarcely so long as the thorax, compressed, pu- 
bescent, basal joint stout ; 2nd rather longer than the 3rd, which 
is oval, the remainder short and obovate, terminal joint elongated ; 
apex conical ; head and thorax black, shining, and thickly punc- 
tured ; the anterior margin of the latter, and the hinder lobes, 
reddish brown ; the head is somewhat orbicular ; the clypeus nar- 
towed ; thorax longer than broad, narrow, oblong, very convex, 
with a dorsal impression behind, the posterior angles forming 
truncated lobes ; scutel oval, truncated at the base ; elytra not 
broader than the thorax, and twice as long, nearly linear, the 
apex ovate ; they are somewhat scabrose, with nine strize on each, 
not neatly punctured, and deepest at the base, costal margin very 
concave towards the base ; wings ample ; under side castaneous- 
brown, the angles of the thorax and the pectoral spine, which is 
rather long and slender, ferruginous ; legs moderate, slender ; 
feet tapering, basal joint a little elongated ; claws slender ; length 
3 lines, breadth I line (fig. 34). The colour of this insect varies 
considerably, some specimens being entirely bright ochreous, 
whilst others have the head and thorax partially variegated with 
black. 
9. Is a Click-beetle very abundant in corn-fields, hedges, and 
meadows, in May and June. I have copied the tail of the Wire- 
Worm from Bouche (fig. 41), who asserts that it lives two years in 
rotten horse-dung in a high state of decomposition, when it is 
almost become earthy, and with it the Wireworms are of course 
conveyed into the fields and gardens. The beede is called 
Elater (Athous) niger. Linn., the black Click-beetle. It is 
boat-shaped, shining black, finely punctured, and clothed with 
yellowish pubescence, which is not depressed; antennae longer 
than the thorax, compressed, tapering and hairy, basal joint stout; 
2nd, minute, ovate ; 3rd, obtrigonate ; the following similar but 
larger, produced on the inside, but decreasing towards the apical 
