32 The Bulletin. 



Chincli Bug). About the time of harvesting wheat and oats these young 

 bugs mature, and they then spread to cornfields for new food, doing so 

 mostly by walldyig or crawling instead of flying, though they have wings. 

 Another brood of young then develop in the corn, and these, when 

 winter approaches, seek winter quarters. There are, so far as positively 

 known, only two complete and distinct broods, the first maturing in the 

 small grain and the second in the corn. This fact of two distinct broods 

 and the habit of migrating is clearly indicated in the letters of com- 

 plaint which we have already quoted. But it is worthy of special em- 

 phasis that in going from the wheat or oats to the corn, they do so 

 chiefly oy crawling {not flying), for on this point the protection of the 

 corn from the bugs largely depends. 



The Chinch Bug, both in young and adult, is provided with a beak at- 

 tached to the head, which is thrust into the plant and through which the 

 juices are sucked. Being thus a sap feeder, it cannot be poisoned by 

 Paris-green, etc., which must remain only on the surface of the plant. 

 The effect of their attack is to dry out and wilt down the plant. 



There are two forms, or races, of the Chinch Bug : one having wings 

 nearly as long as the body when adult, the other having decidedly 

 shorter wings when adult. It is said that the short-winged form is more 

 prone to attack grasses; while it is the long-winged form that is the 

 chief enemy to corn.^ All the adult bugs in our collection are of the 

 long-winged form. 



Dry Weather Favors Chinch Bugs. — Usually Chinch Bugs are more 

 destructive in dry weather, and in wet seasons they are not so notice- 

 able. This is apparently because of certain epidemics of disease among 

 them which are more virulent during wet seasons. It is well for fanners 

 to know this, as it is often convenient to be able to forecast, even though 

 imperfectly, their probable appearance in any locality in destructive 

 numbers. Heavy showers also drown many of them. 



Worse on Certain Lands. — A preference for clay lands rather than 

 sandy is indicated in the complaints already quoted, and the same or 

 similar testimony is often offered to the writer when discussing this in- 

 sect at Farmers' Institutes. We have also been assured at Institutes 

 (humorously but seriously) that there is no better preventive for them 

 than stable manure, as they are sure to be most destructive on the "thin, 

 poor spots in the field," and that the farmer on thin, poor land suffers 

 worse from them than the one on rich, strong land. In any event, we 

 can all agree that the more vigorous and healthy the corn, the more re- 

 sistant it will be to slight injuries, whether from this or any other insect. 



Natural Enemies. — On account of a very disagreeable odor possessed 

 by these insects, one would not expect to find many enemies which 



^Cases similar to this are known in other insects. Certain grasshoppers which inhabit 

 densely grassy places are short-winged and cannot fly, while closely related species occur- 

 ring in the open have longer wings and can fly. 



