526 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
WIREWORMS. SNAPPING!-BEETLE’S HABITS. MODE OP BOUNDING UP. 
the margin of the thorax. The two horns or antenna} are gener¬ 
ally slender and eleven-jointed, and are received, when at rest, into 
two grooves beneath, in the breast; the thorax is more or less four- 
sided-oval, the hind angles projecting and forming spines; the wing- 
cases are long and narrow, covering a pair of ample wings which 
are plaited, lengthwise like a fan, with the tips folded over when 
they are at rest. They have also six legs for walking; the ant rior 
pair is a little the shortest, and the hinder pair the longest; the 
thighs are stout; the shanks are simple; the feet are as long as 
the shanks and are all five-jointed, the basal joint the longest, 
except in the anterior pair, and the last joint is furnished with 
two curved, acute claws. In this state its habits are quite altered; 
instead of the ravenous, destructive wire worm, it is now become 
mi active beetle, running up the grass and readily flying to flowers, 
to which it resorts for food; the sexes also pair, and the male prob¬ 
ably dies' soon after—the femalo being longer lived. At the tip 
of her body is a longish horny ovipositor, which is easily pro¬ 
truded; it is flat and linear, the apex conical, thickened, and form¬ 
ing two lobes, each of which is projecting and hairy; at the tips 
are two minute obovate appendages, with two hairs at the apex. 
Allusion has already been made to the remarkable power which 
these beetles have of recovering their natural position when they 
chance to fall upon their backs. . Their legs not being long enough 
to enable them to turn themselves over therewith, they are fur¬ 
nished with a curious apparatus for this purpose. Between the 
first pair of legs arises a spine, with two small teeth at ifs base 
and sometimes one above, towards the apex. Upon the breast arc 
two oval cavities into which the second pair of legs is inserted, 
and behind these cavities are the hips or trochanters to which the 
third pair of legs is attached. At the interior margin of the breast 
is a long cavity into which the spine is pressed, and the insect 
when on its back, by bending downward its head and tip raises 
this spine with such force that the point is jerked out of the cavity 
that holds it; bringing the centre of the back suddenly upon the 
plane, a spring is produced which raises the insect many inches 
from the ground, and turning over in the air it usually alights 
upon its feet—the height of the leap depending greatly upon, the 
hardness and smoothness of tho surface of the plane, and some 
species can bound much higher than others. 
One of our American snapping beetles has been particularly 
