270 



STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Fig. 2. 



of this insect, and inquiring for means to 

 lessen its numbers and destruction. While it 

 sucks the juices from many plants, it works 

 most seriously on the currant, and so we pro- 

 pose the name, Yelloiv-Lined Currant Bug. 

 The scientific name is Poecilocapsus lineaius 

 Fab. The following brief description will 

 enable any one to easily identify this annoy- 

 ing pest. The bug is bright yellow, lined 

 with black, though the heavy black lines 

 cause it to appear as if lined with yellow. 

 The head, anterior margin of the thorax, base 

 of antennae, rostrum or beak, and entire under 

 parts, orange. Eyes, antennae, clypeus, lab- 

 rum, point of beak, and shading on under 

 side of abdomen, black. Eyes subglobular, 

 prominent. Antennae slender and nearly as 

 long as the body. First joint almost half as long as the second, third joint 

 a little longer than the first, and fourth about half as long as the third. 

 Rostrum or beak slender, reaching anterior legs. Pronotum yellow, margined 

 anteriorly with a depressed orange band. The posterior yellow portion 

 bears four black lines. The central lines are broad, the lateral narrow and 

 marginal. None of these lines reach anteriorly beyond the yellow area. The 

 scutellum has a broad central area of yellow, margined on each side with a 

 black triangle. The legs are yellow, with black specks on the femora and 

 tibiae. The tips of the tarsi are black. The thickened portions of the 

 hemelytra, or wing covers, are yellow, each bearing two conspicuous black 

 lines. The inner lines are broad, the outer ones narrow. The outer or 

 narrow lines are broken near the end, so that a black dot appears on each 

 cuneus. A narrow margin, both inner and outer, on each wing cover, is 

 yellow; also a central line which is about as wide as the narrow black line 

 just outside of it. The membrane is nearly black, with an oval anterior 

 area on each wing cover, which is bounded by a heavy black line. This 

 area does not reach the outer margin of the wing. The length of the 

 insect is seven mm. (28-100 in.) long and the breadth is 3 mm. (12-100 in.). 

 We sprayed these striped currant bugs on the bushes and in the labora- 

 tory with both kerosene emulsion Nos. 1 and 2, and with pyrethro-kerosene 

 emulsion. There were almost too few bugs on the currant bushes to make 

 the experiments satisfactory, but in the field and in the laboratory both 

 applications killed the insects, and the bushes in the garden were freed of 

 the blighting bugs. We also tried sludgite on these striped currant bugs 

 and killed them, but to do this we immersed the bugs in the liquid. Our 

 experiments with sludgite are not encouraging. 



THE SQUASH BUG. 



The old-time enemy of the squash, Anasa tristis, De G., is too well 

 known to need description. The brown egg clusters, the dull yellowish 

 larvae and pupae, the black imago, are all familiar to every gardener. Their 

 destructive w y ork on squashes and other cucurbitaceous plants is too 

 obvious to escape attention. The mature bugs hibernate in winter and 

 often appear in devastating numbers in early spring when the plants are 

 small and illy able to resist the attack. Soon the egg clusters are seen on 



