Report of the State Entomologist. 



157 



upon the trees on which they occnrrcd, or elsewhere, they had excited 

 much curiosity from occurring in such numbers, from their general dis- 

 tribution, and from their continuing so late in the winter. Their contribu- 

 tor, Mr. J. 31. Moore, could give no particular account of tliem : they 

 had been found everywhere during the autumn and winter, and had first 

 been noticed in the early autumn. They were said to be more numerous 

 where the box-elder tree abounded. A friend had reported to him their 

 great abundance in the Indian Territory, during the summer, in and 

 around the tents of his party, where they were known as the " honey-bug" 

 [perhaps from the odor peculiar to them]. 



Description . 



The insect, shown in Figure 64, is one-half inch long by two-tenths 

 of an inch broad, flat upon the upper side; the thorax 

 with a central line and the sides red ; the thick por- 

 tion (coriaceous) of its wing-covers margined on the sides 

 and behind with red ; the lower sides of the body is red in 

 places. It was originally described by Say in the Journal 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, iv, 

 as Lygceus trivittatus, the specific name being drawn from 

 the three red thoracic stripes. It has subsequently found 

 place in the genus Leptocoris. The type specimens were 

 from Missouri. Say's description is as follows : 



"Body black; eyes and stemmata sanguineous ; thorax j 

 mutic; two indented transverse lines near the head, of jf 

 which the anterior one is curved in the middle ; three 

 bright rufous lines, of which two are marginal ; posterior 

 edge obscurely rufous ; hemelytra, coriaceous portion with 

 a rufous exterior and posterior margin; membranaceous ^lo r,4 — The 

 tip immaculate ; trochanters rufous ; tergum rufous with box-elder plant- 

 three lateral black punctures ; venter, margin, and middle bug, Leptocoris 

 rufous. Length nine-twentieths of an inch." trivittatus. 



Observed in Kansas. 



The abundance noticed above is doubtless unusual. Our correspondent 

 had never noticed the insect before, and it has apparently received but 

 little attention, for the only notice of its habits that is found of* it is the 

 following communication from Prof. E. A. Popenoe, of Topeka, Kansas, 

 in the American Entomologist for July, 1880, vol. iii, p. 162 : 



Last fall the box-elders, young soft maples and ash trees on the college 

 grounds, were infested by a black, red-lined plant-bug — the Lexjtocoris 

 trwittatuii of Say — that punctured the bark of the trunk and limbs, feed- 

 ing upon the sap. These bugs have passed the winter in sheltered situa- 

 tions in considerable numbers, and may prove troublesome during the 

 coming season. The young bugs are most injurious, as they appear in 

 much greater numbers, but may be brushed from the trees with a broom 

 and destroyed upon the ground. This mode of operation is rendered the 

 more successful by their habits of congregating on certain parts of the 

 tree at this age. They are then chiefly red in color, acquiring the black 

 with their wings in the adult state. 



Its Favorite Food-plant. 

 The box-elder for which the bugs showed the preference, is the Negundo 

 aceroides, nearly allied to the maples, and sometimes known by the com- 



