28 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 
11-14) checked their ravages and killed great numbers of both the 
young and the old bugs. The rains were light from May 15 to 27, 
and during this interval the young chinch bugs became very abundant. 
On some wheat plants there were as many as 240 young bugs, while 
other wheat plants were free from them; infested wheat plants 
turned yellow and died, owing entirely to the effects of their attack. 
The heavy downpour of rain on the night of May 27 buried thousands 
of chinch bugs in the loose soil and again put a temporary check on 
their ravages. This rain was the last one of any importance until 
the night of June 22. By June 8 most of the bugs had changed to a 
brown color and few red ones remained among them; several eggs 
were observed on wheat roots. By June 14 the young chinch bugs 
were very abundant on the stems and leaves of wheat, and 300 to 500 
bugs per tiller were counted on several plants, which were turning 
white and dying before the grain had matured. The ground was 
covered with moving insects but in no instance were the chinch bugs 
leaving the wheat fields. Five days later the wheat was prematurely 
‘‘ripened”’ through insect attack and the hot sunshine. The ‘‘ripen- 
ing” grain forced them to seek food elsewhere and on June 21 they 
began to migrate from wheat to corn. The grains in the heads of the 
severely attacked tillers were small and considerably shriveled, while 
grains in heads which had not been attacked were full size and plump. 
Great numbers which were migrating on June 22 were temporarily 
checked by a light shower, only to continue the movement as soon as 
the grass became dry. At night, however, a very heavy beating rain 
fell, burying millions of bugs of all ages and sizes in the mud. The 
mud-covered bugs nearly all died and those not dead by the next day 
were found stuck fast in the mud. The ground dried out by noon of 
June 24, and the bugs that were not killed by the rain continued 
migrating toward the cornfield. In an area of 4 square feet in a 
wheat field there were 2,411 dead chinch bugs, some of them buried 
one-half an inch in the soil. In an area of 10 square feet in the same 
field there were only 244 living chinch bugs, all of which were moving 
toward an adjacent cornfield where they collected in masses on the 
outer rows. 
The weather was quite dry during the next few weeks and the bugs 
did considerable damage to young corn, some fields being almost 
devastated. The bugs began to transform to adults about July 5, 
and their ravages ceased within a week thereafter. There were 
hordes of adult bugs scattered throughout the cornfields, and these 
were mating and depositing eggs. 
By the middle of August, when most of the corn had matured and 
dried, there were again great numbers of young bugs on the corn 
plants even under the outer husks below and about the bases of the 
ears; the greener plants were much infested. The corn now began 
