162 INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



some trees iu the same condition and was inclined to tliiuk the Green 

 Bug was the cause. Since that time he has persistently hunted the bug, 

 whipping it out of the large trees with poles, and killing wherever 

 found ; also he stopped planting peas. I have just visited his grove and 

 found hot two twigs damaged, and could not find a specimen of the 

 bug. The trees have changed so remarkably in this grove that it was 

 past recognition. Instead of a dense crop of dead twigs all over his 

 grove, as at a previous visit, the trees had nearly. doubled in size, and 

 had a very large, healthy growth of branches in i)lace of the dead twigs- 

 I hear his trees are now in profuse bloom. I do not think that washes 

 will do much damage to the bug. Very strong whale-oil soap rarely 

 kills. Whale-oil soap, 1 pound; kerosene oil, 1 pint; water, 12 pints; 

 sometimes kills when sprayed over them, nearly always when immersed. 

 Pure kerosene kills, but not always instantly. 



"The Green Bug has a parasite, I do not know what, but 1 frequently 

 find their shells with the inside devoured,. Last winter I buried a num- 

 ber to see if plowing under would kill them. In ten days none were 

 dead ; in three weeks 20 per cent, were dead, nothing remaining but the 

 shells; in six weeks all but one were dead, empty shells remaining. 

 The living insect I put in a bottle with a little earth over it, hoping to 

 find the parasite, but unfortunately in about ten days the bottle was 

 broken, the Green Bug was dead, the shell empty as iu the other in- 

 stances. 



" At present the insect is very rare here ; if found at all, generally on 

 the mustard plant or weed locally known as nightshade. Yesterday, 

 while showing a lemon tree to some visitors, I found some of the twigs 

 drooping and remarked it looked like the work of the Green Bug. One 

 was found under a leaf close to his work. I send you one of the shoots. 

 If at any time you may consider the subject of siiflSient importance to 



send a trained observer in the field, I will be 

 happy to see him here and place every fticil- 

 ity at his disposal."— [James Franklin, 

 West ApopM, Fla., January 31, 1883. 



THE THICK-THIGHED METAPODIUS. 



{Metapodius femoratus, Fab.) 



[Figs. 74 and 75." 



A large dark-brown bug, emitting an un- 



l)leasant odor when handled, is addicted to 



sucking the juices of the Orange, attacking 



either the succulent shoots, the flowers, or 



Fig. 74.— Meta,,odius femoratus. the fruit. It has a licavy, clumsy body, with 



(Alter J ovi'i ) project'ng angles to the thorax; the thighs 



of the liiiid pair of legs are swollen and spiny, and the shanks of the 



same pair are flattened with jagged edges. The adult bug is nearly one 



