302 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



migrate in a body, leaving the old field. In this migrating army we find 

 the adults with fully developed wings and perfectly capable of flight, 

 and the young ones in various stages of development. It is a curious 

 fact that in this migrating army of chinch bugs the adults with fully 

 developed wings rarely attempt to fly, but crawl along with the mass 

 the same as those immature bugs that cannot fly. In fact, it seems dififi- 

 cult to induce the chinch bugs to fly at this time, and it is curious to 

 watch such a migrating arni}^ when they attempt to cross dusty roads or 

 plowed fields. The adult bugs will struggle along with the immature 

 ones and not attempt to fly, when by so doing they could readily span 

 the difficult places. 



At this season the chinch bugs are very sure to migrate in the above 

 described way from the w-heat field to the corn field, and when they reach 

 the corn field they. are tired and hungry, and undoubtedly thirsty, for 

 they attack the first corn plant and begin to insert their beaks and im- 

 mediately suck the sap from the plant. At this time the bugs will cover 

 the first few rows of corn to such an extent as to render it black with 

 them, and especially is this the case with the lowxr part of the corn plant. 

 The bugs will remain here on the first few rows of corn for a short time 

 and then they will gradually disperse throughout the corn field. The 

 adults now pair and lay their eggs for another brood, and this second 

 brood of chinch bugs, in addition to the first brood which has now mi- 

 grated, infest the corn and cause the vast amount of mischief so well 

 known to the farmers of Missouri. 



By the time the bulk of this second brood of chinch bugs in the corn 

 have reached the adult condition, the time has approached for them to 

 seek winter quarters, and the fall migration begins to occur. If the 

 proper winter quarters are near at hand, the bulk of the insects will mi- 

 grate on foot to those places ; otherwise, the winged forms will now 

 readily take to flight and travel considerable distances in search of suit- 

 able places in which to pass the winter. If the corn is cut at tb.is time 

 and stacked in shocks about the field, the farmer has given these chinch 

 bugs the best kind of winter quarters, and they will readily seek them 

 and hibernate in vast numbers in these situations. It will be seen then 

 that chinch bugs have three migrating periods. A period in the fall, 

 during which they migrate by crawling and by flight in search of winter 

 quarters ; a migrating period in the spring, when the insects come out 

 from their winter's hibernation and fly about in search of proper food 

 plants ; and a mid-summer migration, in which the chinch bugs crawl in 

 a mass in search of fresh supply of food and rarely take to flight. There 

 are, in Missouri at least only two broods of the chinch bug each year, 

 but these two broods alwavs occur. 



