HEMIPTERA 387 



The chinch-bug, Bltssus leiicopterus. — This well-known pest of 

 grain-fields is a small bug, which when fully grown measures a little 

 less than 4 rrjn. in length. It is blackish in color, with conspicuous, 

 snowy white hemel\ tra. There is on the costal margin of each 

 hemeh'tron near the middle of its length a black spot ; from each of 

 these spots there extends towards the head a some- 

 what Y-shaped dusky line. The body is clothed 

 with numerous microscopic hairs. In Figure 448 

 this insect is represented natural size and enlarged. 

 The species is dimorphic, there being a short-winged 

 form. 



There are two generations of the chinch-bug each p^g ^^^,—Blissus 

 year. The insects winter in the adult state, hiding leucoptems. 

 beneath rubbish of any kind; they even penetrate 

 forests and creep under leaves, and into crevices in bark. In early 

 spring they emerge from their winter quarters and pair; soon after, 

 the females begin to lay eggs; this they do leisurely, the process being 

 carried on for two or three weeks. The eggs are yellowish ; about 500 

 are laid by a single insect; they are deposited in fields of grain, be- 

 neath the ground upon the roots, or on the stem near the surface. 

 The eggs hatch in about two weeks after being laid. The newly 

 hatched bugs are red; they feed at first on the roots of the plant 

 which they infest, sucking the juices; afterw^ards they attack the 

 stalks. The bugs become full-grown in from forty to fifty days. 

 Before the females of this brood deposit their eggs, they leave their 

 original quarters and migrate in search of a more abundant supply 

 of food. About this time the wheat becomes dry and hard; and the 

 migration appears to be a very general one. Although the insects 

 sometimes go in different directions, as a general rule the masses 

 take one direction, which is towards the nearest field of oats, corn, or 

 some other cereal or grass that is still in a succulent state. At this 

 time many of the bugs have not reached the adult state ; and even in 

 the case of the fully winged individuals the migration is usually on 

 foot. In their new quarters the bugs lay the eggs for the second or 

 fall brood. 



The methods of control of this pest that are used are the fol- 

 lowing : the burning in autumn of all rubbish about fields, in fence 

 comers, and in other places where the bugs have congregated to 

 pass the winter; the stopping of the marching of the spring brood 

 into new fields by means of a furrow or ditch with vertical sides, and 

 with holes like post -holes at intervals of a few rods in the bottom of 

 the furrow or ditch, in which the bugs are trapped; the use of a 

 line of gas-tar on the ground to stop the marching of the spring 

 brood ; in some cases kerosene emulsion has been used to advantage ; 

 the sowing of decoy plots of attractive grains in early spring, and the 

 later plowing under of the bugs and their food and harrowing and 

 rolling the ground to keep the bugs from escaping; and the artificial 

 dissemination of the fungus Sporotrichum globuliferum, which is the 

 cause of a contagious disease of the chinch-bug. 



