CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. oo 
under boards, or in any other place. There were not a great many 
bugs in any one place, however, and it would be rather difficult to 
make a conclusive comparison between the two widely separated 
localities, although the indications are that the majority of the bugs 
seek the thick grasses in which to hibernate. 
The destruction of the hibernating chinch bugs is of much impor- 
tance; it has been discussed frequently and is strongly recommended 
by entomologists throughout the United States. As the methods of 
farming, the prevailing crops, and the wild grasses vary in different 
localities where chinch bugs occur, the places of hibernation may also 
vary considerably. 
Mr. C. L. Marlatt, of this bureau, in an article on the hibernation of 
chinch bugs,* has the following to say: 
In nearly every account of the chinch bug which I have seen, stress has been placed 
on the hibernation of the adult in rubbish of any sort, such as piles of corn fodder, hay 
piles, straw piles, and dried leaves along hedgerows. In course of very careful inves- 
tigation carried on in Kansas during a year of excessive abundance, I failed entirely 
to find any basis for the above supposition. Repeated careful search throughout the 
late fall and winter failed to discover a single living chinch bug in such situations. 
Failing to find them in the situations noted, I carried the examination further and 
finally discovered what is probably the normal hibernating place of the chinch bug 
in the dense stools of certain of the wild grasses, such as the blue stem and other sorts. 
* * * §o marked is this hibernating habit that it is reasonable to infer that it is the 
normal and ancient one of the species, the natural food plant of which, before the 
advent of settlement and growth of the cereals, must have been some of our native 
grasses. 
Mr. H. W. Brittcher, in regard to hibernation,’ says: 
* * * they may frequently be found, more or less closely crowded, low down 
among the stems of clumps of wild rushes and grasses, often working their way down 
between the stems and the soil. 
He recommends burning the sedges in which careful examination 
showed the bugs to be abundant. It must be remembered that in 
Maine it is the short-winged form that prevails and is there a grass 
as well as grain destroying insect. 
In regard to hibernation,’ Dr. S. A. Forbes, State entomologist of 
Illinois, says: 
On the 7th of November a careful search was made in corn that had previously been 
badly infested by them, but none were to be seen upon the stalks or under the rubbish 
on the ground in the field; in the thickly matted grass adjacent only a single specimen 
was discovered by 15 minutes’ search. On the 14th of this month the weather was 
cold and raw, and the ground was frozen about the hills of corn from an inch to an 
inch and a half in depth; a very few bugs were now found in the crevices of the ground, 
among the roots near the surface. At Champaign, on the 15th, I visited again the field 
of Bogardus and Johnson, making a careful search for hibernating individuals about the 

4 Insect Life, vol. 7, pp. 232-234, 1894. 
619th Ann. Rept. Maine Agr. Exp. Sta., 1903, p. 42, 1904. 
¢12th Ann. Rept. State Ent. of Ill., pp. 37-38, 1903. 
