INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 299 



color, which differs so greatly between the adult and the younger stages. 

 Figure 51, bug to the left, shows an adult with normal wings, while 

 figure 53, shows three adults with the aborted wings of different lengths, 

 the one to the left showing very small aborted wings, and the one to the 

 right showing an adult with wings nearly of normal size. Of course, all 

 of these figures show the insects greatly enlarged. 



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HOW AND WHERE THE CHINCH BUGS SPEND THE WINTER. 



Chinch bugs always hibernate in the adult condition during the win- 

 ter. While there are possibly no exceptions to this rule, at least in Mis- 

 souri, yet it is a fact that by the time the chinch bugs are forced to seek 

 winter quarters, some of them are not quite full grown or adult insects. 

 It appears that those chinch bugs that seek winter quarters before they 

 reach the adult condition fail for some reason to live through the winter. 

 While this may not lessen the number of chinch bugs to any appreciable 

 extent, it nevertheless is a fortunate circumstance. Late in the fall, when 

 the proper food plants have become more or less dried and cooler weather 

 is approaching, the chinch bugs begin to migrate and scatter, leaving 

 the plants or the fields in which they have been feeding, and crawl about 

 or fly, as the case may be, in search of suitable places in which to pass the 

 winter. This migration usually occurs in Missouri at the time most peo- 

 ple call "Indian Summer." The great bulk of chinch bugs have by this 

 time reached the adult condition and have fully developed wings, by means 

 of which they can fly from place to place and scatter about the neigh- 

 borhood. But it is a very common sight to see those chinch bugs that 

 are able to fly crawling about, occasionally in large numbers, even in the 

 villages, showing that they have come from the neighboring country, 

 probably by flight. Very frequently they occur in villages at this time 

 of year in such immense numbers as to attract a great deal of attention 

 from the village people, who do not understand the invasion or the name 

 of the insect. Chinch bugs are very apt to leave in great numbers the 

 fields that they have infested during the summer, especially if these 

 fields do not contain a sufficient amount of grass and weeds or shocks 

 of corn, and seek such places as the edge of timber, Osage orange hedges, 

 wind breaks, places where there is plenty of rubbish as along fences, 

 among stone piles or wood piles, hay and straw stacks, and places where 

 there are great masses of rank growth of grass and weeds, especially in 

 corners of rail fences. The insects crawl under such rubbish, especially 

 under leaves and under matted grass, and will collect in these places in 

 vast numbers. They seek especially the above places that are on high, 

 well drained ground, and seem to prefer sandy or rocky soil to mucky. 



