80 
COEN AND GKASS. 
Wireworm; Grub of Click Beetle. Elater (Agnotes) lineatus, 
Linn.; and various other species. 
Elater lineatus, &c. 
1 and 2, E. lineatus; 3 and 4, E. obscurus; 5 and 6, E. sputator, nat. size and 
mag.; 7, larva of E. sputator ?; 8 and 9, larvae of E. lineatus , nat. size and mag.; 
10, pupa. Lines show natural size. 
The fact that by far the largest amount of Wireworm-attack takes 
place on crops which have been put in on land broken up from pasture 
and Clover-ley, without having undergone requisite treatment, is 
constantly more and more brought forward. 
It is plain that this is to be expected, because, as in the natural 
course of things the parent beetles lay their eggs beneath the shelter 
afforded by such crops, the young grubs are certain very shortly after¬ 
wards to be present, and, as these Wireworm or Click Beetle grubs 
live for some years there,—that is, in such localities when broken up, 
—we are sure to have, amongst the grass or clover roots, a supply 
not only of the newly-hatched Wireworm, but of those which have 
been living there for one, two, three, or four years before the breaking 
up of the land ; and, as they feed on almost all kinds of common field 
crops, excepting Mustard, the damage which costs so much year by 
year is certain to ensue. 
But there is no reason this should be allowed to happen. By the 
various measures which are constantly practised by some of our best 
agriculturists, and which lie quite in the scope of regular farming 
operations, the land may be made so unsuitable for egg-laying and 
poisonous to the hatching “ worms” that little or no attack will be 
established in the autumn before breaking up, and likewise a good pro¬ 
portion of the pests already established will be destroyed. 
As these points were entered on in detail in the Special Report on 
Wireworm, and means of prevention of its ravages, prepared from the 
