Transactions of the Department of Agriculture of the State of Illinois with Reports from County and District Agricultural Organizations for the Year Volume 31 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...forms an earthen cell similar and probably made in a similar manner to the cell of the wheat wireworm. This cell is about three fourths of an inch in length and three eighths of an inch wide. Soon after the cell is finished the skin of the larva opens at the sutures on t-he top of the head and along the median line on the dorsum of the following three or four segments. The white and tender pupa then works itself out, leaving the cast larval skin crowded into one end of the cell. The wing-pads, legs, and antennae of the pupa are folded closely on the breast. In other respects it resembles the beetle, but is nearly one fourth longer, and the nine segments of the abdomen are distinctly visible. lt is much larger than the pupa of the wheat wireworm, and in addition to the long sharp bristle at each angle of the thorax it has two similar shorter ones, one each side of the mesal linear depression near the caudal border of the thorax." "The change to a beetle takes place in about one month. The rather slender, glossy, dark brown beetle varies from 11 mm. to 15 mm. in length, and its body is closely punctured and clothed with fine, short, incumbent grayish hairs. The wingcovers are striated by deep oblong punctures, the intervening spaces fla-t and minutely punctured. The mouth parts are on the anterior portion of the head, and the front is slightly flattened but distinctly margined back of the labrum. The antennae are reddish brown and serrate. A smooth, shallow, impressed line extends along the mesal portion of the thorax. The tarsi are not lobed beneath and the claws are pectinate."----OoMs'rocK & SLINGERLAND. This species is, according to Le(Jonte, abundant throughout the Middle and Southern States, and it also extends...