388 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wheat and grass fields along with the chinch bug, and for this reason often 

 considered injurious by farmers, but it seemed to feed only on weeds. 



There are a few other minor references, but these give us something of 

 an idea of its habits and the cultivated plants attacked. It always has been 

 known best as a strawberry insect, because the oftenest found injuring 

 that plant. The above references are all largely incidental, but with these 

 and what has been learned of it on the celery this season, we are enabled 

 to more closely determine its 



LIFE HISTOEY. 



We owe thanks to Mr. Webster for assistance by his notes on the early 

 stages of this bug, as it is single-brooded and the first brood was mature 

 when found on the celery. His record is: "Adults were observed copulating 

 May 9, and were at once confined on wheat under glass, being fed on ripe 

 strawberries. The females began to oviposit on the 20th, placing their 

 eggs singly on the leaves and sheath of the grain. On the 26th, after 

 depositing a few eggs in the intervening time, they made their escape. 

 The eggs may be described as follows: Length, f m. m.; diameter, f m. m,; 

 form elongate oval; and when first deposited the color is shining, very 

 light orange, which gradually deepens until just previous to hatching, 

 when it is a livid red. One of these eggs, deposited on May 21, hatched 

 June 6, the larva being | m. m. in length, brown anteriorly and red 

 barred with brown posteriorly, legs yellow." 



Careful search was made for the nymphs through the celery, and only a 

 short distance on one row next to a ditch, were there any found, and then 

 only an occasional one. They were like the mature form except the abdo- 

 men was blood red, soft, and segmented. These fed in the group along 

 with the adults. After reaching the mature stage they lose their appetite 

 in about three weeks, so that after the 10th of August this year they did 

 the celery no harm and gradually disappeared. Those kept in the breed- 

 ing jar have not cared to feed, but have have collected in crevices in a 

 semi-torpid state awaiting the coming of winter. They hibernate under 

 boards and rubbish as does the tarnished plant bug. 



PREVIOUS APPEARANCE ON CELERY. 



With only one exception, no one, when asked regarding the bug, had ever 

 seen it at work on celery before. This one was Mr. Frenthway of Kala- 

 mazoo who says he has seen it on his celery for the past seven years; only 

 a few each year, not enough to do any harm. It certainly never has been 

 numerous or others would have noticed its work. 



DOES IT BREED ON CELERY? 



• 



This is a question which was studied very carefully while in the fields, 

 and while it can not be said positively that they do not breed on the plant 

 at all, yet it seems very certain that such is the case. In every 

 instance where the bugs were the worst, a rank growth of weeds was found 

 near by. In most instances the weeds had been cut only a few days before 

 the bugs appeared on the celery; but in some cases the weeds, while still 

 standing, were nearly deserted and the celery attacked. The border of 

 the celery field nearest the weeds always showed the first signs of attack, 



