23 



longest at the tip of the abdomen. The cervical shield or dorsal 

 part of the first segment is concolorous with the rest of the body. 

 The sutures of the front of the head are obscure except the me- 

 dian one, which extends about half way to the epistoma. 



An imfigo of this species was seen June 7, 1881, with its beak 

 inserted in a stalk of wbe.it, and another was taken May 26, 18S5, 

 makmg an identical attack up n a young corn plant. Bo intent 

 was it on its employment that it remained attached after the stalk 

 was pulled up, and even then had to be forcibly pulled away. Spheii- 

 opJiorus pertinax was also found at the base of a hill of corn, June 

 16. 



Although in our own observation (conlined to the northern half of 

 central Illinois) the chinch bug has not anywhere appeared in suf- 

 ficient abundance to threaten immediate injury, reports of corre- 

 spondents of the 8tate Department of Agriculture from the region 

 immediately to the southward, give more unfavorable indications, 

 and it seems extremely likely that unless unfavorable weather should 

 interpose a check upon the rapid multiplication of this species, it 

 may 'overpass the limit of insignificance before another year. In the 

 August Crop Report the chinch bug was reported injurious to corn 

 in Clinton, Jefferson, Macoupin, Madison, Pike, Wayne, White, and 

 Richland counties, — in Pike, especially, the corn having been greatly 

 damaged. As early as July, in fact, notes of injury to corn by the 

 chinch bug were sent from Crawford and Madison counties. 



I have already made mention, in a brief note relating to the lesser 

 apple leaf roller, of the simultaneous and similar injuries done to 

 the foliage of the young apole by the green apple leaf hopper 

 (Eiiipoa albopicta, Forbes.)* This species was described by me as a 

 new apple insect in my Second Report (18-)3), and it was not until 

 after this had been published that I happened upon a much earlier 

 account of it printed in the "Prairie Parmer," of Chicago, for Sep- 

 tember, 1858. Dr. Le Baron, subsequently State Entomologist of 

 Illinois, writes of this insect, associated then, as now, with an apple 

 leaf roller, evidently the same as that which he afterward de- 

 scribes as Ttiras milivorana. "Every one," he says, "who has 

 had the care of apple-trees in this section of country, and especially 

 of young trees in the nursery, must have observed that during mid- 

 summer the newly formed leaves often become crumpled and 

 rolled downwards, thus checking the growth of the tree for a 

 time. Upon examining the under side of the leaves, the mischief is 

 found to be caused by a number of small green leaping insects 

 which belong to the tribe of Tettigonians, or leaf hoppers. They 

 subsist upon the sap circulating in the leaves, which they obtain by 

 puncturing the veins on the under side, thus causing them to roll 

 downwards. These little insects are not stationary like the i\.phides 



* A comparison of my spe 'imens with an analysis of the genera of Jassida;. given by 

 Pieber. shows that most of the snei^imens cieailv belong to his genus Chloria, although 

 the outer apical cells at the tip of che liemelytra may be either sessile or stflkcit, partak- 

 ing conseaueiitly of tlie characters of both his genera Chloria and Kvbos. The head aid 

 and pronotal characters are, however, those of Chloria. On the other hand, there can bo 

 no doubt that the species belongs clearly under the spoeie- Empoa, as described by Fitch, 

 oruiuler the genus Empoasea of Walsh. (Proceeiiings of Boston Society of Natural Hi-^- 

 tory,Vol. IX. p. Ml.i.) As both these generic descriptions antedate tho.se of Eieber, hU 

 genus Chloria must be considered a synonym. 



