278 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



flower-buds were so universally killed by this insect that no dahlias 

 were there to be had." 



Destructive to Rose-buds. 



Dr. Fitch also states that he has met with this insect, puncturing 

 the flower-buds of the rose and causing them to perish. This may be 

 the explanation of the destruction annually in my garden of a large 

 proportion of the buds upon several of my rose-bushes, for which I 

 have been unable to discover any cause. Shortly after the formation 

 of the earliest buds, a large number have been observed to turn black, 

 and their stems for about an inch downward, also to blacken. The 

 buds soon shrivel, dry up, and bend over toward the black shriveled 

 stem. I have repeatedly cut open the buds and stems thus affected, 

 and carefully examined them, without being able to find either egg or 

 insect within them. For successive years, upon detecting this attack, 

 I have also cut off the buds at some distance below the affected part of 

 the stem, and inclosed them in jars, in the hope of obtaining from them 

 the insect depredator, but without success. 



Energy of Attack. 



The attacks of this insect appear to be characterized, when it has 

 attained its adult stage, by a peculiar energy or vigor through which 

 injuries are inflicted whicli apparently exceed the ability of the com- 

 paratively few depredators observed in the work. While very rarely 

 are more than two or three of the bugs seen upon a leaf, yet were its 

 entire surface covered by them, the destruction could not be more com- 

 plete. In illustration of this, the following statement of their oper- 

 ations upon a day-lily, as observed by me, may be of interest. They 

 manifested an especial fondness for the tender and succulent leaves of 

 some clusters of this plant growing in my garden, and almost before 

 the attack upon it was observed, the foliage had been entirely destroyed. 

 A leaf which was picked for preservation as illustrative of its work, 

 measuring six inches in length by four broad, had, by count, between 

 two of its veins, selected as offering an average amount of injury, one 

 hundred and seventy-one of its characteristic markings — rounded, 

 transparent or translucent spots, as the parenchymal matter had been 

 more or less completely i-emoved, varying from one-twentieth to one- 

 tenth of an inch in diameter. As there were eighteen of these intra- 

 nervular spaces, there is obtained for the entire number of these 

 spots upon the leaf, three thousand and seventy-eight. 



Distribution. 

 Unfortunately, this insect has an extensive distribution, and occurs 



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