THE chinch-bug: its life-history. 



153 



Life-History. 



Transformations. — The eggs are laid in the autumn upon the crown 

 or the roots of the plants, where they remain throughout the winter and 

 until the ground becomes warm enough in the following spring for their 

 hatching. Or they may be laid in the spring by the bugs that were the 

 later to mature and have hibernated in the perfect or in the pupal stage.* 

 Occasionally clusters of the eggs are to be found above ground attached 

 to the blades of their food-plants. 



The eggs are so minute as hardly to be visible without a magnifier, 

 measuring only about three-hundredths of an inch in length by one-fourth 



as broad. They are of a 

 dull reddish color, elongate 

 oval with the exception of 

 being flattened at one end, 

 where they bear four small 

 tubercles, as at a and b in 

 Fig. 38. About five hun- 

 dred eggs are deposited by 

 each female, at intervals, ex- 

 tending over several weeks. 

 They hatch in about two 

 weeks, when the larva ap- 

 pears at first of a pale yellowish color, but soon changes to red, except 

 the two anterior segments of the body, and the legs, which are yellow- 

 ish. In this stage it appears as shown in c. After the first molt, it be- 

 comes bright red, with a pale band across the middle of the body. After 

 the second molt, the wing-pads begin to make their appearance, as at/, 

 and the general color has become darker, with the pale band still con- 

 spicuous. Another molt brings it to its pupal stage, as at g, with distinct 

 wing-pads; its anterior portions dark brown (fuscous), and its abdomi- 

 nal portions grayish, except the tip which is brown. The entire period 

 required (when not interrupted by hibernation) for the transformations 

 from the egg to the perfect insect, is from five to seven weeks. 



Tlie early brood. — During the months of May and June, but earlier 

 in the Southern States, the hibernating individuals leave their retreats, 

 and those that have not mated the preceding autumn, now seek their 

 mates, soon after which the females proceed to lay their eggs upon the 

 crown of the food-plant, or beneath the ground upon the roots, where 

 the early life of the insect is, for the most part, passed. At this season 



*Dr. Fitch has observed puppe in October which he did not doubt would pass the winter 

 in that state (2d Report, p. 291). 

 20 



Fig. 38.— Earlt stages op the Chinch-Bug ; a, 6, eggs ; c, 

 newly-hatched larvK ; d, its tarsus ; e, larva after first molt ; 

 /■, same after second molt ; 3, the pupa ; A, leg of mature bug 

 enlarged ; j, tarsus of same, more enlarged ; i", proboscis or beak 

 enlarged. 



