581 
October, ’24] lane: rearing wireworms, elateridae 
found by resifting. Several ways of rearing the tiny larvae have been 
tried in order to obtain the molted skins, but no very satisfactory method 
has been found. The best method seems to be in placing the larvae on 
sliced roots in petri dishes between layers of dark colored blotting 
paper, but it is very hard to keep the dishes clean and at the right 
degree of moisture. 
After the larvae attain a size of 8 to 10 millimeters they can be placed 
in outdoor cylinders. Cylinders prepared for the reception of these small 
larvae should be filled with soil sifted through a 20 mesh screen to keep 
out strays and still be able to retain the larvae under observation when 
necessary to resift. 
Adults after mating can also be introduced directly to the outdoor 
cylinders, by using a screen top of ordinary windbw screen. The screen 
should be cut to fit snugly within the cylinder and be as high as necessary 
to allow for plant growth. This screen cylinder top can be sewed with 
copper wire and if the selvage is allowed to come at the top, be made 
beetle tight by bending inwards in three places and sewing the selvage 
together where it meets. One or more mated female adults introduced 
in one of these cylinders will burrow down and deposit their eggs nor¬ 
mally, so that on subsequent examination the depth of oviposition can 
be determined. These screen tops can also be used to determine spring 
emergence dates of adults. 
For outdoor life history and control work with wireworms where it is 
desired to eliminate as many unknown factors as possible, a larger cage 
can be used. This cage can best be made in the form of a rectangular 
box without a bottom, 10 feet long by 4 feet 4 inches wide, containing 
approximately one thousandth of an acre of soil area. This cage should 
be sunk in the ground to a depth of at least 15 inches. Either grooved 
boards or galvanized sheet iron can be used in making this cage. 
When a known number of larvae are introduced to this cage accurate 
checks can be made on their feeding habits and control experiments be 
carried on over several years without fear of the larvae escaping. A 
rectangular screen top may be made to fit this cage, allowing the adults 
to emerge normally and their habits to be studied. A series of these one 
thousandth acre cages can be arranged, so that a variety of habitats 
can be provided and all the different broods of the wireworms kept under 
experimental control. 
Conclusion 
The writer has used with success all the different methods and cages 
herein described and believes that with proper adaptations most of them 
