29 
crust-like surface, nearly destitute of hairs; their brownish color, 
varying from yellowish to reddish; their slender bodies, distinctly 
segmented, and of about equal diameter throughout their length ; 
their flattened heads, with jaws borne in front and extending 
horizontally forward; the ptri ,,|,, aE& short, stout, jointed legs 
on the three segments following the head; the absence of legs 
of any kind on the eight segments thereafter; and the single 
sucker-like proleg on the under surface of the last segment of 
the body—the thirteenth, counting the head as one. This term¬ 
inal segment is often peculiarly finished above—concave or con¬ 
vex, notched, toothed or lobed at the sides and end, or, in one 
species, with a pair of conspicuous round openings on the upper 
surface. Taken in the fingers, the wireworms bend and wriggle 
with surprising strength, and easily slip out of the grasp. 
They live regularly and normally in grass lands, feeding on 
roots of grass, where, however, their numbers are rarely suffi¬ 
cient to produce any notable effect upon the sod. It is only 
when concentrated in the comparatively scanty vegetation of a 
field of young corn in spring, or occasionally in young wheat 
or other small grain, that they do any very marked or import¬ 
ant harm. They are to be found in grass of every description, 
from prairie sod and the coarse and rank sedges along the 
borders of marshes, to the cultivated grass of our pastures and 
meadows. 
The commonest form of attack on the corn, as seen by the 
farmer, is, perhaps, the burrowing of the worm into the seed ker¬ 
nel, either before or after it has sprouted. All the species treated 
in this paper have been seen with their heads buried in the ker¬ 
nels, either in the field or in breeding cages. Frequently at¬ 
tacks in the field have been so severe, particularly the first 
or second year after the sod has been broken, as to require 
planting a second or third time. Drasterius elegans and Melan- 
otus fissilis have been taken in the act of perforating stalks just 
above the root. In a field at Peru, Illinois, examined July, 
1883, as much as six per cent, of the corn in the field had been 
killed in this way. sometimes two or three larvae being found in 
a single stem. 
The roots of the corn are also eaten to a greater or less ex¬ 
tent by all the species, the damage from this cause being some¬ 
times quite considerable. A field in Alexander county visited in 
June, 1886, had spots of one hundred to two hundred hills not 
more than a foot high, while the balance of the field was four 
or five feet high. Many hills in these spots were gone. In the 
smaller hills many small, slender, peculiar-looking larvae of an 
unknown species of Cardiophorus were found. In some instances 
they had almost completely destroyed the roots of the corn; in 
others the roots were bored through and the outer surface eaten 
away so as to almost destroy their usefulness. 
Agriotes mancus is so destructive to wheat as to be known as 
the “wheat wireworm”. Drasterius elegans is also known to in- 
