1. The slender hard-skinned larva of any of the click-beetles (family Elateridæ), which is destructive to the roots of plants; also applied to similar larvæ, esp. the leather-jacket grub of the crane-fly.
1790. Trans. Soc. Arts, VIII. 302. The person who shall discover to the Society an effectual method … of destroying the insect called the Wire-Worm.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., I. vi. 181. The wire-worm … destroying indiscriminately wheat, rye, oats, and grass.
1882. R. D. Long, in Garden, 18 March, 189/3. I … found the crop quite eaten up with wireworm.
2. A myriapod, esp. one belonging to the genus Iulus; a millepede.
1875. Melliss, St. Helena, 202. J[ulus] pulchellus, Leach.—The Wire Worm, well known as one of the most destructive insects in the Island to all root-crops.
