We 
hairs scattered over its polished shining skin. It 
is semicylindrical, the back being convex, the 
belly more flat. Its head is flattened or wedge- 
shaped, and there are twelve abdominal segments, 
The mouth is rather small, and comprises an up- 
per-lip, with a horny base, the margin leathery 
and bilobed; it is small and concealed beneath 
the clypeus, which is rigid, with a ciliated lobe 
on each side, and three minute teeth in the mid- 
dle; beneath is a large semiovate space formed 
by the union of the base of the maxillze with the 
mentum or chin, which is long and narrow; the 
under-lip is small and somewhat obtrigonate, the 
base truncated, the margin undulating and fur- 
nished with two small biarticulate palpi or feel- 
ers, sometimes with an indistict third joint ; on 
either side is the maxilla, having a minute and 
densely pubescent lobe on the inner angle, with 
a larger biarticulate one behind it, and a four- 
jointed palpus or feeler on the outside, the ter- 
minal joint the smallest; above these are the 
mandibles or jaws, which meet over the mouth, 
one being placed on each side,—they are strong, 
horny, and of a pitchy colour, being more or less 
pointed, with a tooth below the apex, and fre- 
quently a smaller one at the middle,—and below 
this is a ciliated space. Two little antennee or 
horns are placed in front of the head near the 
anterior angles; they are triarticulate and simi- 
lar to the palpi in form, the basal joint being the 
largest, the terminal one short and slender; and 
sometimes there is a tubercle projecting from one 
of the angles of the second joint. On each side 
of the head and behind the antenne is a minute 
dot like a little eye. The first abdominal seg- 
ment is much longer than the two following; the 
eight succeeding have a minute spiracle on each 
side; the terminal one is the longest and conical, 
with a brown or blackish oval aperture, larger 
than the others on each side towards the base ; 
beneath this segment is also a false leg or pre- 
hensile foot, which assists in walking, and is pro- 
bably the vent for the evacuation of the digested 
food. The three first or thoracic segments are 
furnished with six short legs, a pair being at- 
tached to each near the hinder margin; and 
these are nearly alike and four-jointed, the joints 
being rough with short brown spines, the apex 
furnished with a strong claw, slightly curved 
and nut-brown. When the wire-worm has ar- 
rived at maturity, it descends a considerable 
depth into the earth, and forms an oval cell there 
entirely composed of the surrounding particles of 
soil, and not even lined with silk; it then casts 
its skin again, and becomes a pupa or chrysalis, 
generally, it seems, at the end of July or begin- 
ning of August.—The pupa -is long and narrow 
in form, like the perfect insect, but is of a yel- 
lowish-white colour. There are two minute spines 
projecting from the anterior angles of the thorax ; 
all the oral organs are visible ; the horns and legs 
are folded or incumbent upon the breast; and 
the wing-cases as well as the wings are small 
WIRE-WORM. 
and the least developed of any part; the scutel 
and abdominal segments are distinct, the apex 
being furnished with two moveable spines and 
two lobes terminated by nipples in the middle 
beneath. Of course at this period the animal is 
at rest, being deprived of the power of locomo- 
tion, and is consequently no longer injurious. 
The insects commonly remain in the pupa state 
two or three weeks; but many no doubt pass the 
winter buried and protected from casualties and 
the rigour of that inclement season. When the 
appointed time for their transformation comes, 
they burst from their shrouds and earthy tombs, 
and rising through the soil arrive at the surface 
changed to perfect beetles, but of a whitish col- 
our, soft, and extremely tender; and after being 
exposed to the air and light, their bodies harden 
and their colour gradually changes, so that in a 
few hours they attain their horny coat, their spe- 
cific colour, and ail their permanent characters. 
Wire-worms occur in most land, and attack 
almost all kinds of crops; but they specially 
abound in some particular conditions of soil and 
in some particular situations, and they greatly 
prefer certain plants to others. The tastes of 
individuals of different species, and those also of 
different ages of the same species, probably dif- 
fer ; so that, though all the specimens which can 
be obtained in any field or garden may seem to 
be perfectly like one another in every thing but 
size, several entirely distinct kinds, with appre- 
ciably different habits, or even with powers of 
mischief ancillary and supplementary to one 
another, may be simultaneously carrying on the 
work of devastation. Wire-worms are particu- 
larly rife on land which has lain long fallow, and 
on ploughed land newly or recently broken up 
from old pasture or from clover ley; they seem 
specially to multiply from the undisturbed depo- 
sition and hatching of their parents’ eggs on 
grass lands and wastes, and from the free supplies 
of food afforded them by grasses, weeds, and all 
sorts of luxuriant, perennial, herbaceous vegeta- 
tion; and, within the sphere of cultivation, they 
prey most on oats, wheat, barley, artificial grasses, 
turnips, carrots, mangel-wurzel, rape, cabbages, 
potatoes, onions, lettuces, hops, irises, carnations, 
pinks, lobelias, and a multitude of the most com- 
mon ornamental plants of the flower-border. So 
many as from four to eight wire-worms have 
been turned up by the spade in a space of four 
feet; and so many as from four to twenty plants 
have been observed to be bitten in a very short 
time by one worm. 
The most important crop which suffers from 
the wire-worm is wheat. A writer in the Lin- 
nan Transactions, speaking of this in cases of 
sowing upon clover leys, recently broken-up old 
pastures, and pea and bean stubbles, estimates it 
t about a twentieth part of the whole, and 
‘thinks this a very fair and moderate calculation. 
“The number of cultivated acres of land in 
England at the time in question,” says he, “was 
749 
