HEMIPTERA. 173 



three twentieths of an inch in length. It is readily distinguished 

 by its white wing-covers, upon each of which there is a short 

 central line and a large marginal oval spot of a black color. 

 The rest of the body is black and downy, except the beak, the 

 legs, the antennae at base, and the hinder edge of the thorax, 

 which arc reddish yellow, and the fore part of the thorax, 

 which has a grayish lustre. The young and wingless indi- 

 viduals are at first bright red, changing with age to brown and 

 black, and are always marked with a white band across the 

 back. It is a mistake that these insects are confined to the 

 States south of the 40th degree ; for I have been favored with 

 them by Professor Lathrop, of Beloit College, Wisconsin, and 

 by Dr. Le Baron, of Geneva, Illinois. The latter gentleman 

 had no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number without 

 going out of his own garden. The eggs of the chinch-bug 

 are laid in the ground, in which the young have been found, 

 in great abundance, at the depth of an inch or more. They 

 make their appearance on wheat about the middle of June, 

 and may be seen in their various stages of growth on all kinds 

 of grain, on corn, and on herds-grass, during the whole sum- 

 mer. Some of them continue alive through the winter in 

 their places of concealment. A very good account of these 

 destructive bugs, with an enlarged figure, will be found in the 

 " Prairie Farmer," for December, 1845. In the same publica- 

 tion, for September, 1850, there is an excellent description of 

 the chinch-bug, by Dr. Le Baron, who, not being aware that 

 it had been previously named by ]VIr. Say, called it Rhyparo- 

 chromus devastator. 



During the summer of 1838, and particularly in the early 

 part of the season, which, it will be recollected, was very dry, 

 our gardens and fields swarmed with immense numbers of 

 little bugs, that attacked almost all kinds of herbaceous plants. 

 My attention was first drawn to them in consequence of the 

 injury sustained by a few dahlias, marigolds, asters, and bal- 

 sams, with which I had stocked a little border around my house. 

 In the garden of my friends the Messrs. Hovey, at Cambridge- 

 port, I observed, about the same time, that these insects were 

 committing sad havoc, and was informed that various means 



