1 66 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



L. succinctus , " will no doubt hereafter prove to be only the western 

 form of it." This would extend the range of the species into California, 

 Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. 



In its early stages, according to Uhler, it is of a brilliant steel-blue 

 color, with reddish legs, and a bright red spot at the base of the 

 abdomen. 



Habits. 



Scarcely any thing is known of ihe habits of this insect, as it has not 

 engaged the attention of our economic entomologists- Mr. Glover had 

 found it hibernating in Maryland, under moss, stems and bark in mid- 

 winter but had never seen it injuring plants. In the same State and in 

 Virginia, the adults have been observed along the borders of oak-woods 

 in the months of July and August. It also occurred in the southern 

 cotton-fields, occasionally upon the bolls, but commonly on the ground 

 and under stones. It had been represented as stinging severely with its 

 proboscis and as destroying other insects. 



It is closely allied to the well-known red-bug or cotton-stainer of the 

 Southern States, Dysdercus sidurellus Her.-Schf.,* which is so injurious 

 to cotton, in sucking the sap from the plants and the bolls, and staining 

 the fibres of the opened bolls indelibly with their excrements, to the 

 extent of greatly impairing the market value of the cotton. 



Other members of the family, although less nearly allied to it than the 

 above, and therefore of but little value in indicating habits, are the 

 chinch-bug, Blissvs leiocopterus (Say), the false chinch-bug, Nyshis 

 angustata Uhler (= N. destructor Riley), and Lygceus turcicus Fabr. — 

 the latter a common New York species, found abundantly upon milk- 

 weed {Asclepias), during the month of August, and said to have been 

 seen feeding upon the caterpillars {? Euchetes cgle) infesting the plant. 



The habits of a European species Pyrrhocoris calmariensis Fallen, 

 from its near relationship, are probably much like those of L. succinctus. 

 Prof. Westwood had found them swarming in gardens in the neighbor- 

 hood of Berlin, where they were engaged in sucking fallen berries 

 and seeds, as well as such of their companions as had been trodden 

 under foot (Introduc. Classif. Ins., ii, p. 481, fig. 121, 8, 9). Haus- 

 mann had observed their partiality for dead insects, and that they 

 would not attack living ones. 



* See Glover's "MS. Notes from my Journal — Cotton and the Principal Insects Frequent- 

 ing or Injuring the Plant," 1878, where the transformations, structure and habits of the 

 insect are illustrated in the fourteen figures of Plate XVI, and mention is made of the cotton 

 plants near Jacksonville, Florida, in 1855, being literally colored red with the multitudes 

 that were crawling over the stalks, leaves, and bolls. 



