60 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. xi. 



areas inhabited by this short-winged race of chinch bugs, if left for a 

 long series of years without rotation with cultivated crops, got over- 

 populated with chinch bugs and the whole meadow is destroyed, 

 whereas a rotation not only destroys a large number of the bugs but 

 serves to keep them reduced over large areas of country. In Jefferson 

 and Essex counties, New York, there is at present a serious outbreak 

 of these chinch bugs in timothy meadows, and this has occurred in 

 Ohio in other years. It has been demonstrated that if a crop rotation 

 is generally carried out in a community, this trouble will be prevented. 

 In Illinois and some portions of Ohio, the long-winged or macrop- 

 terous race of chinch bug is the only one present and the timothy 

 meadows, even of long standing, do not suffer from their ravages. But 

 over such areas, the long standing meadows of the dairyman are at- 

 tacked by other insects, and, though these are in no manner related 

 to the chinch bug, the results are precisely the same. After a couple 

 of years the insects become so abundant as to kill out the timothy 

 entirely, and not only this, but where corn is planted on these grounds, 

 if plowed in spring, the young corn plants are frequently entirely 

 destroyed by the pests that have developed in the field the previous 

 summer. In this case the insect causing the destruction is Spheno- 

 phorus parviihis, which deposits its eggs in the bulbous roots of the 

 timothy and the larvse hatching from these eat out the interior of the 

 roots, killing the grass. In some parts of Ohio I have found this insect 

 very destructive to timothy meadows of several years' standing, besides 

 frequently destroying the young corn the following spring, if this was 

 planted. There are some indications that the insect is becoming more 

 numerous and menacing the corn crop over considerable areas. Dr. 

 Forbes has found that in some sections of Illinois, in meadows of two 

 years' standing, from ten to twenty per cent, of the roots were affected 

 and in those that have stood three or four years, from fifty to seventy - 

 five per cent, are affected, but in any case, if the land be fall plowed, 

 the beetles will leave the field and not attack the crop that follows the 

 next year. 



Thus, lucrative prices for dairy products stimulates dairying ; this 

 increases the area of timothy meadows and tends to their continuance 

 for a series of consecutive years. This increases the abundance of 

 these insects and consequently the magnitude of their ravages. 



