212 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
NOTES ON FALSE WIREWORMS WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO ELEODES TRICOSTATA SAY 1 
By James W. McColloch, Assistant Entomologist , Kansas State Agricultural 
Experiment Station 
With the establishment, in 1915, by the Department of Entomology, 
of project No. 100, dealing with a study of those insects injuring the 
roots and germinating seeds of staple crops, the writer undertook a 
study of the available species of the tenebrionid genus Eleodes. 
There are two primary reasons why this group of insects was chosen 
as a part of this project. First, practically nothing is known concern¬ 
ing the life-histories of the various members of this genus. Swenk 
(1909) partially worked out the life-history of E. opaca Say, and 
Hyslop (1912) gives a short synopsis of the life-history of E. letcheri 
vandykei Blaisd. According to Gebien (1911, pp. 242-252), the genus 
is a large one, containing 123 species. Eleven of these species have 
been recorded from Kansas. Second, the beetles of the genus Eleodes 
are native insects confined principally to the semi-arid regions west of 
the Mississippi River. In fact, only three species, tricostata, opaca f 
and suturalis (Wickham, 1899) have been recorded east of Kansas. 
In Kansas, they are typical of the native prairies and farther west 
they are found in the sage brush areas. The gradual breaking out 
of these prairies is depriving these insects of their native food and is 
forcing them to feed on the more succulent cultivated crops. Just 
how successful the different species are in becoming adapted to the 
new conditions is an interesting problem. E. opaca has already be¬ 
come a serious pest of wheat in Kansas and Nebraska. E. letcheri 
vandykei has appeared in cultivated fields in the Pacific Northwest, 
and, in 1913, E. extricata var. convexicollis Blaisd. was found attacking 
grains in Montana. 
The life-histories of several species have now been studied at the 
Kansas Experiment Station and that of E. tricostata will form the basis 
of this paper. Reference will be made to other members of the 
genus, especially when they touch on the species under consideration. 
Economic Importance of the Genus 
It is only within recent years that the false wireworms have been 
recognized as pests of growing crops. Blaisdell (1909, p. 29) states 
1 Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory, Kansas State Agricultural 
College, No. 32. This paper embodies some of the results obtained in the prosecu¬ 
tion of project No. 100 of the Kansas Experiment Station. 
