The Hop Wireworm. Elater lineatus, Curtis.

Fig. III.

1 and 2, Elater lineatus; 3 and 4, E. obscurus; 5 and 6, E. sputator, nat. size and magnified; 7, larva of E. sputator; 8 and 9, larva (wireworm) of E. lineatus, nat. size and magnified; 10, pupa (lines show nat. length).

This is one of the most destructive insects known to agriculturists. It is especially injurious to wheat, barley, oats, rye, page 15 turnips, grass, and hops. It is well known in Germany and other continental countries, where it does much harm to most crops, and to young hops. According to Harris and Professor Lintner there are allied insects in America, which work and destroy in the same manner as the European wireworm, though differing in certain respects.

Wireworms are most troublesome in newly-formed hop plantations in England, particularly in those which have been made upon recently broken up grass land. Planters do not, and very naturally, like to pare and burn the turf or sward with the rich stores of humus, this is therefore ploughed deeply in, and legions of wireworms with it. These being deprived of the roots of the grasses attack the newly planted hop sets, boring into their stems, sucking out the sap, and gnawing off the shoots as fast as they make their appearance, as it would seem in mere wantonness. It frequently happens that the plants die from the attacks, or are only able to put forth weakly and useless shoots. Sometimes wireworms do infinite mischief in established plantations, causing injuries which are frequently attributed to natural decay, or to the soil or subsoil, as the insects bury themselves into the stocks, and are not easily discovered. This cannot be said to be a new foe to hop planters by any means. Lance speaks of it, though he confounds wireworms with centipedes. Curtis also alludes to it as injuring hop plants. But without doubt it has been very much more abundant during the last five years, and in the present year its ravages have been unusually great in various places in all the hop-producing districts.