CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 29 
to get too dry to afford them food and they began migrating to kafir, 
sorghum, and grass fields, killing all crab-grass and panic grass in the 
cornfields before they left them. Some bugs were observed in 
alfalfa fields but at no time were they feeding on the alfalfa. 
During October and early November several chinch bugs were 
observed on young wheat and a few eggs and young larve of the third 
generation were observed. They did not damage the wheat during 
the late fall, and by the middle of November had left the wheat fields 
for winter quarters. 
The kafir and cane were green until the middle of September, and 
great numbers of chinch bugs were feeding on these two crops at this 
time when the crops were harvested. They remained on these plants 
and were put into the shock, where they were observed on several 
occasions during the fall, but they all left before cold weather set in. 
During early fall a few bugs were to be found in nearly every situa- 
tion on the farm—some in corn husks, some in alfalfa fields under 
the leaves, and some among sparsely growing grasses, but most of 
them were in the bunches of clump-forming grasses along fences, 
roadsides, and railroad rights of way, in waste places, and in meadows. 
That the weather conditions of the summer and fall were the most 
favorable for the chinch bugs is indicated by the vast numbers that 
went into winter quarters. Some of the bunches of the red sedge 
grass (Andropogon scoparius) contained from 10,000 to 20,000 bugs, 
this grass affording them the most attractive and favorable hibernat- 
ing quarters. 
The severe cold weather of December, 1909, was disastrous to bugs 
that failed to reach some of the clump-forming grasses, and very few 
bugs in corn husks and among thin grasses survived the winter. 
. 
SOUTHERN KANSAS AND NORTHERN OKLAHOMA, 1910. 
In southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma the spring of 1910 
opened the last week of March with warm, dry weather. The chinch 
bugs began to migrate to the wheat fields; on March 24 the air was 
full of flymg adults and by March 26 the wheat fields were badly 
infested. The weather turned much warmer about April 1, the chinch 
bugs began mating, and by April 10 were depositing eggs about the 
wheat roots; by April 20 the eggs were very abundant—hundreds 
on the exposed roots of every plant. Not many eggs hatched during 
April and the first 10 days of May on account of the cool weather, 
but they hatched profusely during the next few days, so that by May 
20 the fields were overrun with myriads of very young chinch bugs. 
Wheat throughout southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma had 
been severely winterkilled, which, together with the exceedingly 
dry spring, left the plants in a very weakened condition. The soil 
was so dry during April and May that the small amount of rainfall 
