oct.2i, i9i8 The Meadow Plant Bug, Miris dolabratus i8i 



Experiment Station collection contains several specimens of the adult 

 insect, the dates recorded for Orono being July 14 and 18, 1905, and July 

 II, 1907. Dr. Patch published a record of its abundance in 1908 and as 

 mentioned elsewhere, I have noted it as being abundant in 1914 at 

 Orono. Prof. C. L. Metcalf said that the species was abundant during 

 the summer of 1916 in late instars and adult males at Fort Kent on July 

 5 and 6; at Presque Isle, mostly adults, on July 8; and at Houlton as 

 adults with few nymphs of late instars on July 9. I found them abundant 

 at Phillips and other points between Farmington and Dallas, where 

 timothy meadows were examined, on July 18, 1916, and also very plen- 

 tiful in some old meadowland in the vicinity of Saddleback Lake on July 

 19 and 20. None occurred on Saddleback Mountain at any point above 

 the level of the meadowland or the growth of the timothy and other 

 grasses commonly occupied by the species. 



It is evidently safe to assign its distribution in Maine to all parts where 

 suitable grasses occur, and it may confidently be expected to occur 

 during the months of June, July, and August in all old meadowland 

 where timothy forms a part of the combination, and a search in the stems 

 will be pretty sure to disclose the eggs of the insect during other months 



of the 3^ear. 



♦ ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



While, to judge from the occurrence of great numbers of Miris dolabratus 

 in meadows and the evident attack on the plants, it must be inferred that 

 the insect causes serious injury to the crops, there appears to be little to 

 establish the amount of loss or to separate it from that due to other 

 species. In fact, but few of the Capsidae have been given much attention 

 from the economic standpoint. The familiar and cosmopolitan tarnished 

 plant bug, Lygus pratensis, has been knovm for years as a pest to many 

 plants. In 1892 Howard (1892) called attention to Oficogtmthtis bino- 

 tatus as "a new enemy to timothy grass." Dr. M. V. Slingerland, of 

 Cornell University, has treated the common 4-lined plant bug {Poecilo- 

 capsus lineatus) as a pest of currants; Prof. E. A. Popenoe, Kansas 

 Agricultural College, has called the little Halticus citri (Ashm.), a garden 

 pest of beans; and the common Adelphocoris rapidus has been known for 

 many years to affect the clover crop. 



Some idea of the effects produced by the meadow plant bug may be 

 obtained by noting the enormous numbers to be found hanging to the 

 plants and especially to the heads during the time the timothy is in 

 bloom. Often a number cling to a single head, from three to five being 

 not unusual. The fact that they suck the bloom doubtless means a heavy 

 loss in seed or in weight and nutritive value of hay, although there is 

 little external evidence of injury. 



Evidence of injury based on the amount of hay per acre where the 

 meadow plant bug is plentiful as compared with fields where it is absent, 

 78775°— 18 4 



