The Wire-Worm 
107 
them is land which for several years has 
been laid down in grass, while that which 
lies low and is badly drained or inclined 
to be moist will suit best. In such a spot 
as this Mrs. Click Beetle will deposit her 
eggs in the ground, which in a short time 
will develop into yellowish-brown or 
reddish wire-like grubs with six legs on 
the first three segments and a small 
prominence on the last segment. Now 
if these little grubs were the creatures of 
a day, a week, a month or even a year, 
we should not worry so much about them, 
and probably they would not in their turn 
worry us as they do; but unfortunately 
they are long lived, for they take from three 
to five years to become full grown, and 
during the greater part of that time they 
gnaw away at the roots of plants and 
commit wholesale acts of destruction. The 
larvae attain the full growth during the 
summer months, and having curiously 
formed a small house or cell from the 
earth in which they live, they enter it 
and are there transformed into the pupae. 
Three or four weeks later the adult beetles 
cast off the pupa skin, some coming 
