THE COTTON STAINER OR RED BUG. 167 



drauj^hts of juice from the pulp within, and are sometimes seen to suck 

 the juices from the surface of split or injured fruit, tapping it with the 

 tips of their probosces, after the manner of flies. 



The sucking-tube, having the fineness of a hair, leaves no visible 

 wound upon the outside of the fruit, and within no indication of its 

 passage. An orange which has been attacked therefore shows no out- 

 ward sign of injury ; nevertheless, a single puncture causes it to drop 

 in a few hours from the tree, and to decay in one or two days 



It is quite useless to pack for shipment to a distance the fruit from a 

 grove which is attacked by lied Bugs, since the unsound fruit decays in 

 the packages and soon ruins the whole. 



GeograpJdcal distribution. — The Cotton Stainer is an inhabitant of 

 warm climates. It is foundin great abundance in the Bahamas, where, 

 according to Mr. E. A. Schwarz,* it annually destroys a large part of 

 the cotton crop. From the Bahamas or other West India islands it 

 may have been introduced into the extreme southern portions of the 

 cotton belt, in the United States. In Florida it has not been reported 

 as occurring north of Gainesville, in Alachua County, and it is unknown 

 to cotton-planters in the northern part of that county, although a famil- 

 iar insect in cotton fields everywhere south of Gainesville. 



The taste for oranges appears to have been recently acquired. Mr. 

 Glover, in the Agricultural Kejiort for 1875, gives an account of the in- 

 sec and its depredations upon cotton, but does not mention it among 

 the insects noted as injurious to the Orange. It should, however, be ■ 

 remarked that at the date of Mr. Glover's observations comparatively 

 few bearing orange groves existed in the more southern portion of the 

 State. 



In 1879 the insect first attracted the attention of orange-growers, 

 and the crop of that year was injured by it in several widely separate 

 portions of the fruit belt. In various i^arts of the State it has since be- 

 come a well known and much dreaded pest, and has occasioned very se- 

 rious losses. 



Freedom from Attacks of Enemies. — The Red Bug is one of those showy 

 insects which are probably possessed of an acrid flavor, disagreeable to 

 other animals, and are in consequence not much preyed upon by ene- 

 mies. Certain it is that the Red Bug is not eaten by fowls or other 

 birds, nor has any enemy of its own class been hitherto observed to at- 

 tack it. The eggs will very probably be found to have parasites, as is 

 the case with most other Hemiptera, but none have as yet been discov- 

 ered 



Remedies and remedial Measures. — In default of aid from predatory 

 animals it remains for man alone to combat this pest. Its extermina- 

 tion, in view of its gregarious habits, would not be a matter of great 

 difliculty, if concerted action over wide areas could bo secured. As was 



* Report upon Cotton Insects, Department of Agriculture. 1879. Appendix I, p. 

 347. 



