20 THE CHINCH BUG. 
In timothy meadows where the original attack has begun along one 
side and gradually extended inward, the line of separation between 
the entirely dead grass and that uninjured is frequently not over a yard 
in width, and within this narrow, irregular strip we may have the 
dead and brown, the yellowing indicating more or less serious injury, 
and the perfectly healthy green of unattacked plants. This many- 
colored border may change but little in the space of a week or ten 
days, except to advance very materially, leaving the grass completely 
dead or dried up, while the clover plants are uninjured. This indi- 
cates that the females, after leaving their places of hibernation, do not 
spread out over any large area, but to a certain degree maintain their 
gregarious habits. The author believes that these habits have been 
shaped by some past environment in which the species has been placed 
for a long period of time, as, for illustration, the inhabiting of 
bunches or tufts of grass more or less isolated from each other. 
To what extent pairing takes place in these places of hibernation 
before the insects make their way to the cultivated crops is a matter 
of considerable uncertainty. From his own observations the writer 
is inclined to believe that only a very insignificant minority follow 
this course. 
In his “ Wanderings of Insects ” Prof. Karl Sajé has called atten- 
tion to the influence of electrical storms in the dispersal of insects, 
and it is quite possible that adult chinch bugs may be thus affected by 
the heavy thunder that usually accompanies these storms, during 
which they seem to disappear from corn plants on which they had 
previously congregated. 
OVIPOSITION. 
According to most writers the eggs are deposited either about or 
below the surface of the ground, among the roots of the grass or grain. 
It is more than likely that the place varies with the conditions, as the 
eggs are not infrequently found above ground about the bases of the 
plants, and even upon the leaves, though we have never found them 
there, but have often found them under the sheath of grasses. It 
would seem, then, that the eggs require a cool, damp, but not a wet 
location. 
. 
EGG PERIOD AND NUMBER OF EGGS DEPOSITED BY EACH FEMALE. 
Doctor Shimer states that each female deposits 500 eggs, scattering 
them over a period of from ten days to three weeks, and as the adult 
develops in fifty-seven to sixty days after the eggs are deposited, or 
about forty-two days after hatching, it will be seen that some of the 
earliest hatched young are well along toward full development by the 
time the last eggs are being deposited. According to Doctor Riley, 
the eggs hatch, on the average, in two weeks. 
