39 
beneath, the distal angles being slightly prominent, giving the 
sides of the abdomen a dentate appearance.” (Geo. H. Horn’, 
Can. Ent. IV-, 1872, p. 6.) 
Imago. (Plate V., Fig. 4.)—Robust, color piceous to brown, 
elytra often paler, surface moderately pubescent. Head and 
thorax very convex, the mouth inferior, mandibles broad and 
chisel-shaped at tip; surface of head and thorax densely and 
coarsely punctate; striae of elytra deep, punctate, interspaces 
nearly flat, rugose, and punctulate, antennae and feet rufous. 
Length 7-9 mm. 
Agriotes pubescens, Mels. 
(Plate VI., Fig. 1.) 
This species, closely related to the foregoing, is not separable 
from it in the larval stage, and as the two occur in about equal 
abundance in corn fields and have a similar life history, they 
may best be treated—at least until more is known of them—as 
a single economic species. 
Melanotus communis , Gyll. 
(Plate VI., Fig. 3-5.) 
This species is one of the most abundant of our click beetles, 
and the wireworm descended from it has been taken bv us in 
about equal numbers with that of the following species ( M . fis- 
silis). The two together make about twenty-eight per cent, of 
the wireworm collections of this office. The species is widely 
distributed, ranging at least from Nebraska to New Jersey and 
Canada. The wireworm of M. communis* though so abundant 
generally, has not been especially common in our collections 
from corn fields, only eight out of forty-five lots collected from 
the office having come to us from such situations. These were 
taken respectively June 30, 1883, from about the roots of corn 
near Milan; from corn fields at Champaign, May 25, 1885, and 
May 16, 1886; from roots of corn after prairie sod at Mendota, 
July 17, 1884; from corn fields near Peoria, July 1, 1883, from 
sod corn at Mt. Pulaski, June 16, 1885; from corn at Urbana, 
May 7, 1888; and from a corn field on the University premises 
at Urbana, November 25, 1890. 
Life History. —The length of the larval period is not definitely 
known, but is not less than three years. According to the 
account of Comstock and Slingerland (with which our own breed¬ 
ing-cage results agree), pupation occurs during July, and about 
one month later the change to the adult state has taken place. 
The beetles under observation did not leave the cell in which 
they had undergone their transformations in the breeding cages, 
until the Toll owing spring, which would indicate that they nor¬ 
mally pass the winter in the ground. Harris says, however, 
* The larva of M. fissilis, the species following, is quite possibly included here. 
I 
