The Foub-lined Leaf-Bug. 



225 



"We have also seen the Dandelion and Burdock injured slightly, and 

 the Canada Thistle considerably by the insect. 



Botanically considered these lists are of interest as they show an 

 exceedingly wide range of food-plants for a single species of insect. 

 Rarely do we find an insect attacking indiscriminately so many differ- 

 ent plants with such widely different characteristics. The fifty-four 

 species of plants represent forty-nine genera in thirty-one different 

 families of the Flowering Plants. The Gymnosperms like the pine, etc., 

 are not represented, and but one genus {Hemerocallis) of the Monoco- 

 tyledons. Fourteen of the plants are useful for food or medicine; 

 twenty-nine are ornamental; while but eleven are wild species. Thus 

 the beneficial results from the attack, rarely severe, of the insect upon 

 the weeds, so termed, is slight compared with its frequently very injuri- 

 ous attacks upon the cultivated plants. 



The insect seems to have fully realized that " variety is the spice of 

 life; "for it shows no impartiality, notwithstanding the juice of the 

 leaves may be acrid, bitter, aromatic, mucilaginous, bland, or sweet, and 

 their surfaces be rough or smooth. This list of the food plants is also 

 of interest in connection with the egg-laying habits to be discussed on 

 another page. 



Indications of the Presence of the Pest. 



The insect usually makes its first appearance in this State about the 

 middle of May on the newest, tenderest terminal leaves. The insects 

 are then so small and active in hiding themselves that they are not apt 



Fig, 2.— Currant leaf, lowing the characteristic spots made by the insect, natural size. 



29 



