1070 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



of from 10 days to 3 weeks. The author gives technical descriptions 

 of the various immature stages, as well as of the adult. 



With regard to the young bugs it is recorded that they are found 

 mostly upon the lower portion of the plants which they attack. They 

 are frequently found congregated in the sheaths of grasses, and often 

 escape observation under those circumstances. 



The number of annual generations for the greater part of the United 

 States is two, but in Ohio the author thinks there is only one brood 

 per year. 



Attention is called to the fact that the chinch bug is always of a 

 gregarious habit, and the suggestion is made that this indicates an 

 original habit of living in tufts of grass from which the colony 

 migrated. 



Among the food plants are mentioned various maritime grasses, 

 broom corn, sorghum, Bermuda grass, blue grass, wheat, rye, barley, 

 corn, and timothy. The author has never witnessed serious attacks 

 upon oats. A list of the various estimates of losses from the chinch 

 bugs is compiled and explained in some detail. 



Among the natural checks to multiplication of the chinch bug, 

 meteorological conditions are considered the most potent factors. The 

 adult insects, however, withstand heavy rains and the severe cold 

 weather of winter; but the young, during the early stages, are easily 

 destroyed by wet weather, particularly by severe windstorms. Conse- 

 quently, devastations caused by the chinch bug in any particular year 

 will depend very much upon the number and character of the rain 

 storms which occur during the time of the early development of the 

 young chinch bugs. During the latter stages of the immature bugs, 

 heavy rain storms are of little avail. 



The two best-known parasitic fungi which attack the chinch bug, 

 Entomoplithora aphidis and Sporotrichum globuliferum, are described. 

 It is a well-known fact that both of these fungi cause more destruction 

 to the chinch bug during a wet season than during an exceedingly dry 

 one. Another rather doubtful enemy of the chinch bug is Bacillus 

 insectorum. This bacterium also vegetates more luxuriantly during 

 moist weather. 



Various experiments in scattering diseased chinch bugs and cultures 

 of the two fungus parasites of the chinch bug are described, and the 

 results of these experiments, which the author made in Ohio, are 

 recorded as very encouraging. 



Among the bird enemies of the chinch bug, the quail is said to be 

 the most important. The other bird enemies which are mentioned are 

 the prairie chicken, red-winged blackbird, catbird, brown thrush, 

 meadow lark, and house wren. 



"Perhaps the worst insect enemies of the chinch bug are to be found among its com- 

 paratively near relatives, the insidious flower bug, Triphleps insidiosus Say (Anthocoria 

 pseudo-chinche of Fitch's Second Report), and Milyas ductus Fab., the latter being 

 reported by Dr. Thomas as the most efficient of the insect enemies of this pest, while 



