42 
Melanotus infaustus, Lee. 
A single specimen of this beetle was bred in 1889 from a lot 
of larvae kept in a stock cage and fed upon corn, the others 
giving us M. fissilis. All were collected in a corn field near 
Champaign, and after being placed in the breeding cage were 
not disturbed until September 21, 1889. They were then found 
to bef well-colored adults lying snugly in the" pupal cells, and 
apparently prepared to pass the winter there. 
The adult is 11.5 mm. in length, of a dark brownish color, 
rather slender, and covered with grayish hairs. The thorax is 
longer than wide, with straight, diverging sides, and the pos¬ 
terior angles have only a single carina. It is rounded in front, 
and is very sparsely punctate. The form of the thorax clearly 
distinguishes this species from the others attacking corn. The 
legs and antennae are chestnut-red. 
The Corn Wireworm. 
(Melanotus cribulosus, Lee.) 
(Plate VI.. Fig. 6-8; and Plate VII., Fig. 1.) 
This is without doubt by far the commonest wireworm in 
corn fields in Illinois. Larvae referable to it make not less than 
one third of the wireworm collections of this office, and fully 
half of these were taken in corn fields at dates from April 27 to 
June 28, that is to say during the time when wireworm injury 
to corn is generally commonest and most serious. On the other 
hand, the adult is far outnumbered by M. communis in miscella¬ 
neous collections, being, indeed, rather rare with us except among 
insects obtained from corn fields or bred from larvae infesting 
corn. LeConte found the species in Nebraska, and Smith’s Cata¬ 
logue of the Insects of New Jersey credits it to that state. 
Little has been added to our knowledge of this species since I 
published in 1886 a brief account of its life history in my Mis¬ 
cellaneous Essays on Economic Entomology (p. 17). The state¬ 
ments of that article were based chiefly upon observations made 
in 1885 in a field of corn in Champaign county which had lain 
in pasture for many years before. 
The injury to which corn is liable when the ground is infested 
by this species was well illustrated by the condition of this 
field, where I estimated that wireworms averaged three to a 
hill for the entire area, the number ranging from two to six or 
eight. Only about one hill in fifty w r as found free from them in 
the higher, more sandy, parts of the field, although on the 
low T est ground there were no wireworms at all in several hills 
examined. They had attacked only the kernels as yet, but 
would later, of course, have eaten the roots and burrowed the 
underground portions of the stalk. All the wirew 7 orms in this 
field were concentrated in the hills of corn, not a single one be¬ 
ing found during protracted search made elsewhere. Even the 
