STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
521 
WIREWORMS. MANY KINDS. THEIR DIFFERENCES. 
or if they fafl of doing so, they repeat this spring again and 
again, until they succeed, resembling the feats of an acrobat or 
tumbler, and with each spring making a loud click, similar in 
sound to the ticking of a clock. They have hence received the 
names of “click-beetles,” “spring-beetles,” and “skip-jacks” in 
England, and in this country I do not recollect to have ever 
heard them designated by any other name than that of “ snapping- 
bugs,” although suapping-beetles would be a much better term. 
From their appearance when about to make a skip the Indians 
called them the “neck-breaker,” or the “insect that breaks its 
neck.” 
These Elaters or snap ping-beetles are an extensive group of 
insects, and there are consequently many kinds of wire worms, these 
worms being the Elaters in their larva state. We meet with them 
in two very different situations, a part of them being found under¬ 
ground where they feed upon the roots of plants, and another 
portion residing under the loose bark of diseased and decaying 
trees, feeding there upon the putrid wood. They have been called 
wireworms from their long, slender, nearly cylindrical forms, their 
smooth, shining surface, and the tough, leathery texture of their 
bodies. It would be expected that these wireworms would closely 
resemble the larvae of the Buprestis family of beetles, as this 
family and the Elaters are so closely alike in their perfect form, 
that, in the systematic classification of insects, authors have been 
unanimous either in placing them side by side or uniting them 
into one group under the name Sternoxes or Breast-spined beetles. 
Their larvae, however, arc very dissimilar. On the other hand, 
the close resemblance of the wireworm to the meal-worm has been 
remarked by every one, although this pertains to a group which 
is widely separated from the Elaters in our systems of classifica¬ 
tion. 
On coming to submit a number of wireworms taken from dif¬ 
ferent situations to a particular examination they are found to 
differ from each other in various particulars. Most of them show 
an impressed line along the middle of the back, but in some 
specimens this line entirely disappears. The surface is usually 
covered with punctures, fine or coarse, but is sometimes perfectly 
smooth. But the most remarkable differences occur in the struc¬ 
ture of the last segment of the body. 
