The Fouk-lined Leap-Bug. 241 



months of the year in the egg. This fact renders two of the principal 

 preventive methods that have been recommended practically useless. 



Not knowing the manner of hibernation of the insect, its food- 

 plants assume a new interest. A study of the list will show that 

 three-fourths of the plants are herbaceous or die down in the fall, thus 

 offering no shelter for the eggs during the winter. In fact, in only 

 sixteen plants out of the fifty-four species could the e^gs pass the win- 

 ter, these being the shrubs.* Thus only these plants could become the 

 permanent food-plants of the pest. The facts brought out in the dis- 

 cussion of the habits of the nymphs also substantiate this. The wild 

 currants were doubtless among its original food-plants. 



Summary of the life-history of the pest. — Briefly stated, our obser- 

 vations upon the life-history of the Four-lined Leaf -bug show that the 

 nymphs appear in the latter part of May upon shrubby plants where 

 they continue to feed upon the tender leaves for two or three weeks, 

 undergoing five moults. The adults appear early in June and often 

 spread to different surrounding succulent plants. Egg laying begins 

 in the latter part of June, the eggs being laid in slits cut in the stems 

 of shrubs near the tips of the new growth. The adults disappear in 

 July and the insect hibernates in the egg. Only one brood occurs 

 each year in our State. 



Methods of Preventing the Ravages of This Pest. 



The Four-lined Leaf -bug is not an easy pest to control. The new 

 light thrown on the habits and life-history of the pest by our observa- 

 tions during the past two years shows that several of the preventive 

 methods heretofore recommended are practically useless. More caution 

 should be used in recommending remedies or preventives when so lit- 

 tle is known of the life-history of the insect. With our present 

 knowledge of the pest the preventive methods to be employed to com- 

 bat it resolve themselves into two groups — insecticides and mechanical 

 means. 



£y the use of insecticides. — The food of this pest consists only of 

 the juices of the leaves or buds of the plants upon which it feeds. It 

 is not provided with biting jaws for masticating its food as are many 

 other insects like the potato beetle, grasshoppers and caterpillars. 

 But, as we have seen, its mouth parts are formed into a beak through 



* These are the shrubby althea, burning bush, Japanese maple, sumach, rose, 

 currants, wild currant, gooseberry, deutzia, hydrangea, syringa, Hercules' 

 club, weigela, bittersweet and sage ; all being ornamental plants [except the 

 currants, gooseberry and sage. 



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