43 
few remaining tufts of sod of the preceding* year were free from 
them where the hills around were badly infested. The ground 
had been in corn the year before, and had then been consider¬ 
ably damaged, but not nearly as much so as at the time of 
my visit. It had, however, been replanted about June 1 (1884), 
and the owner was plowing up the" first planting May 25, 1885, 
with a view to planting again. 
The wireworms taken from this field were easily assorted in 
two lots, and only two, according to size. Placed in breeding 
cages May 25, they were still living as larvae June 13 and July 
12. By August 3 pupation had begun, the pupae being en¬ 
closed in elongate cells in the earth, and on the 22d pupae were 
again found, but no imagos, while September 12 pupae, recently 
transformed imagos, and others of a color and consistency to 
indicate that they had changed at least a few days previously 
were found still in the earth. None of the beetles came out of 
the earth in the cage during early fall or winter, but February 
17, 1886, all were found dead in their pupal cells, badly in¬ 
fested by mites. The larvae of the smaller size were not bred in 
this experiment, but only those seemingly full grown. All the 
specimens reared were cribulosus, except a single communis , which 
may not impossibly have been introduced with the sod. The 
earth in the breeding cages was mixed with soaked corn kept 
covered with fresh sod. 
A similar but smaller experiment was made the following year, 
with a like result, wireworms placed in a breeding cage in May 
yielding the adult of this species by September 17. 
From these experiments it is evident that the larval life of 
cribulosus, and clearlv of communis also, is completed during 
the latter part of the summer, and that the transformation to 
the imago begins in early autumn. It is probable that the 
imagos emerging pass the winter in their pupal cells, although 
the death of our specimens in the earth makes the evidence on 
this point incomplete. 
The hibernation of this species above ground anywhere out¬ 
side its pupal chamber has not been positively ascertained by 
us. The only collections made from the office which could pos¬ 
sibly bear this interpretation are five obtained in April from 
the 8th to the 28th of the month. Three of these were from 
ground being plowed, and both the other specimens came from 
corn fields—one from about the roots of old corn of the preced¬ 
ing year. 
Description. — Larva .—(Plate VI., Fig. 6-8).—Length about 20 
mm., width 2 mm. Subcylindrical, slightly depressed, yellow- 
castaneous, extremities darker, surface glabrous and shining, 
minutely and very sparsely punctate. 
