. The world of animal life. Zoology. WIRE-WORMS 365 WIRE-WORMS (Family Elaterid^) If you have ever walked through a corn-field early in spring, when the corn is coming up, you will probably have seen here and there a patch of bare ground with hardly any green blades upon it. Wire-worms are probably lying underneath, and have devoured the roots of the young plants just as they were sprouting. This grub lives underground for no less than three years, and all that time nibbles away at the roots of our crops. It does not eat much of each, but, after gnawing away just enough to kill the plant, it f
. The world of animal life. Zoology. WIRE-WORMS 365 WIRE-WORMS (Family Elaterid^) If you have ever walked through a corn-field early in spring, when the corn is coming up, you will probably have seen here and there a patch of bare ground with hardly any green blades upon it. Wire-worms are probably lying underneath, and have devoured the roots of the young plants just as they were sprouting. This grub lives underground for no less than three years, and all that time nibbles away at the roots of our crops. It does not eat much of each, but, after gnawing away just enough to kill the plant, it forces its way through the earth, very much as a worm does, until it comes to another plant, which it attacks in like manner. Even a single wire- worm can do a great deal of harm in the course of its life. If it were not for such birds as the starling and the rook, indeed, which find out where it is lying, and rout it out with their strong beaks, it would destroy our corn and turnips, and almost everything else. Some species of wire-worms do not live underground, but in dead trees, where they feed upon the decaying wood. These are not so mischievous. When the wire-worm has come to the end of its three years of feasting, it becomes a pupa, and lies quietly in the ground. After a few months its shell bursts, and a beetle comes out; a long, narrow beetle, which is commonly called a " click ". You may know this beetle by the way in which it recovers its feet if it should happen to fall over on its back. Its legs are very. Wire-worms a, I, Wire-worms; c, do., magnified: d^ the pupa or chrysalis {e natural size}; 7^ a perfect beetle (natural size); g, do., magnified: h, i, other beetles which produce wire-worms (magnified).. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Smith, Fred, pseud. , ed. London,
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License: Licensed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1910
