208 INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OF CALIFORNIA. 



In fact, it is the size that is the main difference, the minute variety 

 being only about half as large (^ inch long). 



Life History. — The life history is practically the same as that of 

 the larger form. Nysius erica Schilling, 



Nature of Work.— The work is the same as that of the tarnished 

 plant-bug. 



Distribution. — This species is especially abundant in the southern 

 and central parts of the State, though it occurs in all other parts as well. 



Food Plants. — The insect is especially destructive to sugar beets 

 grown for seed. It works on grass and many wild plants and occa- 

 sionally attacks lemon and orange trees after the cover crop has been 

 plowed under. Such attacks are forced, due to the destruction of the 

 native food plants. It has been collected in large numbers on cultivated 

 flowers. 



Control. — Control measures are the same as for the false chinch bug. 



THE CHINCH BUG 



Blissus Icucopterus Say 



Description. — The chinch bug is a very small black and white 

 insect J- inch long. The eggs are about one third as long as the adults, 

 oval and amber in color. The young vary from yellow and red to the 

 • color of the adults, depending upon the age. 



Life History. — The winter is passed in protected places by the adult 

 insects. The eggs are laid within the grass sheaths or upon the stems 

 above or below the ground in the early spring, several hundred being 

 laid by each female. They hatch in a very short time and the young 

 begin work immediately, collecting in dense colonies and doing great 

 damage. They moult four times before reaching maturity. There are 

 two generations each year. The insects migrate very quickly when food 

 becomes scarce in any locality. 



Nature of Work. — This bug attacks growing grain, often so com- 

 pletely stunting the crop that it never maturas. An infested field soon 

 turns yellow and ceases to grow. 



Distribution. — The chinch bug was first reported in the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay region as early as 1885. 122 It has also been reported from the 

 Sacramento and San Joacpiin valleys and the southern part of Imperial 

 County. 123 Though present in the State for many years it has not 

 become a pest and is seldom if ever encountered. 



Food Plants. — This insect feeds on barley, oat, wheat, grasses and 

 corn. The destruction by it has been exceedingly great in the Middle 

 Slates. 



Control. 124 — Where this bug has become a serious pest it is very 

 difficult to control. Burning over the grass lands, the removal of all 

 grass and weeds around fences, along roads and ditches, the destruction 

 of corn stalks and the plowing under of stubble and all debris will serve 

 to kill many of the hibernating adults. 



122 Bul. No. 17, Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agric, 1885. 



121 Bul. No. 15, n. s. Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agric, p. 11, 1898. 



'"Sanderson, E. D., Insect Pests of Farm, Orchard and Garden, pp. 91-92, 1912. 



