no INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



immediately afterwards begin to lay their eggs. This usually 

 happens about the last of June or beginning of July, at which 

 time, by carefully examining the vines, we shall find the insects 

 on the ground or on the stems of the vines, close to the ground, 

 from which they are hardly to be distinguished on account of 

 their dusky color. This is the place where they generally re- 

 main during the daytime, apparently to escape observation; 

 but at night they leave the ground, get beneath the leaves, 

 and lay their eggs in little patches, fastening them with a 

 gummy substance to the under sides of the leaves. The eggs 

 are round, and flattened on two sides, and are soon hatched. 

 The young bugs are proportionally shorter and more rounded 

 than the perfect insects, are of a pale ash-color, and have quite 

 large antennce, the joints of which are somewhat flattened. 

 As they grow older and increase in size, after moulting their 

 skins a few times, they become more oval in form, and the 

 under side of their bodies gradually acquires a dull ochre- 

 yellow color. They live together at first in little swarms or 

 families beneath the leaves upon which they were hatched, 

 and which, in consequence of the numerous punctures of the 

 insects, and the quantity of sap imbibed by them, soon wither, 

 and eventually become brown, dry, and wrinkled; when the 

 insects leave them for fresh leaves, which they exhaust in the 

 same way. As the eggs are not all laid at one time, so the 

 bugs are hatched in successive broods, and consequently will 

 be found in various stages of growth through the summer. 

 They, however, attain their full size, pass through their last 

 transformation, and appear in their perfect state, or fm^nished 

 with wing-covers and wings, during the months of September 

 and October. In this last state the squash-bug measures six 

 tenths of an inch in length. It is of a rusty black color above, 

 and of a dirty ochre-yellow color beneath, and the sharp lateral 

 edges of the abdomen, which project beyond the closed wing- 

 covers, are spotted with ochre-yellow. The thin overlapping 

 portion of the wing-covers is black; the wings are ti'ansparent, 

 but are dusky at their tips; and the upper side of the abdo- 

 men, upon which the wings rest when not in use, is of a deep 

 black color, and velvety appearance. The ground-color of this 



