ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 277 



In view of all these tliiu,i;s, to become cutliusiastic over even a bufr, was only to be natural. Study- 

 ing the whole suliject euthiisiastic'ally, the knowledge of tlie epidemic was thrust upon me at the time 

 it was passing— a discovery of a result second to none on the American continent. AVe then had 

 on our hands a civil war— a war that had never l)een e(|ualled in magnitude. Vet the chinch bug 

 ipiestiou (omitting the destruction of human life,) was one of still greater magnitude. Uf war we 

 could see an end, but of chinch liugs i\one. 



I was searching for something that would demonstrate the destruction of the chiuch l)ug, and when 

 I had fomul it in that great epideuiic, I felt like an aucienl philosopher who, upon discovering a long- 

 sought problem, ran bareheaded through the streets of his city, crying " Kurekal Euridca! " 



After having thus, through hiug years of patient toil and close application, thonmghly studied the 

 habits of the chinch bug, and beheld their sun go down, I was prepared scientitically to predict years 

 of exemption for our farmers. Tliis I first did in a i)ublic aildress before the Carroll County Agricul- 

 tural Society, at Lanark, about the middle of September of the same year, imo, by assuring them 

 that they need not fear to sow wheat on account of the eliincli biig. This assurance was useful to 

 many who believed in my report, and they secured a Large pecuniary reward, foi- wlieat was a good 

 crop, and prices wore all that the most avaricious could desire. I repeated that prediction when I 

 last met with you two years ago in the following language: 



"I here stake my reputation as a naturalist on the declaration that for our I'egion of country it will 

 recpiire many years of warm, di'y summers and mild or snowy winters for protection, to develop 

 such a-numerous host of chinch bugs as we had in ISii,'!, 4 and 5. "—Transactions of the Northern Illi- 

 nois Ilorticultm'al Society, vol. 1, p. 102. 



My demonstral ions have been more than realized. A\'e have been entirely free from their devas- 

 tations ever since. Last sumnur I saw two; the preceding summer I found, during the hot, dry 

 weather, a good number of speciuiens about fox tail grass in the 5[t. Carroll Seminary gardens. I 

 saw very few in wheat, and heard of no damage being done. I saw, however, in some gardens, great 

 multitudes of the larva of a shorter, wider species of heteroptera, of which I did not breed any to the 

 perfect state. a 



Thus my predictions have been completely realized for four years, proving tliat they were not 

 blindly made, to the great satisfaction of our farmers, who now have such confidence in the practical 

 absence of this graiu enemy as to lay aside all fear about its pi-oducing such destruction now as in 

 those terrible years. For the truth of this I appeal to our termers of Northern Illinois, Iowa, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota— the great spring wheat growing regions of the Valley of the Mississi])pi, 

 notwithstanding any impertinent comments that may be or have been made upon it I'rom time to 

 time by jealous Entomologists or others, who even sacrifice science in their eagerness to pull down 

 others and build up themselves. No personal allusions are intended. 



OTIIEK FOHCKS THAT II.VVK Ol'EIlATED AGAIN.-^T THE CHINCH BUG. CANNlliAL INSECT.9. 



Lady birds.— These are not the least among the insect enemies, aud many an ill-fated chinch bug 

 has been doomed to fill the stomach of the larva of the lady birds. As long a.go as 18G1, in an essay 

 upon the injurious insects of Illinois (Trans. 111. St. Agric. Soc, IV, p. 31G), Jlr. Walsh gave it as 

 his belief, from finding larva and pupa of lady birds among chinch bugs, that the former preyed 

 upon the latter, and points out four species that probably indulge occasionally in this kind of food. 

 But it remained for me, in the autumn of ISlit, to verify these reasonable conclusions by actually 

 ol)serving the larva of the spotted lady bird (Ilippodauiia JIaculata) in the act of devouring chiuch 

 bugs in the field. I then caged many of these larva and sui)plied them regularly with chiiich I)ugs 

 and no other food, and thus succeeded in raisiug a goodly nnuiber to the perfect state. But nniuy of 

 the younger ones perished, which appears to denote that they need other aliment besides chiuch 

 bugs,— possibly lack of water was the diUlcully. Abmit (he other species of lady birds I can .say 

 nothing positively, except that, after the closest observations, I have never found one that would 

 eat such loathsome food. This spotled lady Ijird, always rather abnudant, was much more numerous 

 with us in those chinch bug tiuies. Kut for want of time I must refrain fnnn farther expanding on 

 this deeply interesting subject— the economy of lady birds. I have notes of mv own observations of 

 sufficient extent to occu])y all the present time assigned me. 



LACE WINGED OR GOLDEN EYED FLY. 



Several species of this family of insects I have observed to feed on chinch bugs, that is, judging 

 from finding Iheui among chinch bugs. One species, Chrysopa Illiuoiensis, or plorahunda, as Mr. 

 Walsh supposes it to be, I luive fomnl in great numbers feeding upon chinch bugs, and bred a good 

 many to the perfect state, during which time I recorded a series of observations, sonu' of which will 

 interest you. In the autumn of 18ij4, I saw uuiuy of these greenish-white larva, of lizai'<l-!ike form, 

 bodies being thick or swollen in the middle, tail sharp pointed and used in locomotion, ami head 

 armed with projecting sickle-like jaws, living among the chincli bugs and feeding voraciously upon 



