174 



APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



importance in the United States, and that in only a few of the Southern 

 States though it is also injurious in some of the West India Islands. 

 The Cotton Stainer (Dysdercus suturellus H.-S.) as it is called (Fig. 165), 

 feeds on cotton, and occasionally the egg plant and orange among culti- 

 vated crops. On oranges it attacks the fruit about the time it is ripen- 

 ing, puncturing the skin and thus hastening decay. On cotton the insect 

 punctures the partly developed bolls and if the attack is severe these 

 may be destroyed. If not, the fiber is more or less stained, apparently 

 from the punctures in the seeds, reducing the value of the cotton 

 anywhere from 5 to 50 per cent. As the bugs develop in colonies and 

 remain close together for some time and in their early stages are red, they 



Fig. 165. — The Cotton Stainer (Dysdercus suturellus H.-S.): a, nymph; b, 

 Enlarged about three times. (From U. S. D. A. Farm. Bull. 890.) 



adult. 



are easily located and knocked off into dishes containing kerosene. In 

 fall and spring they are attracted to baits, either of cottonseed or sugar 

 cane, where they can be killed with kerosene. The bugs also feed and 

 breed freely on Hibiscus and the Spanish Cocklebur, and the destruction 

 of these plants near cotton fields will prevent their breeding there and 

 spreading in larger numbers to the cotton. 



Family Lygaeidae. — There are many kinds of insects in this family 

 but nearly all are small, being in most cases less than a third of an inch 

 long. A number occasionally injure various plants, and one — the 

 Chinch Bug — is one of the worst half-dozen pests in the United States. 



The Chinch Bug (Blissus leucopterus Say). — This little bug, less than 

 a quarter of an inch long, feeds on all the grasses and cereal crops. It is 

 apparently a native of tropical America which has migrated northward, 



