DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT STAGES. 21 
In a series of breeding-cage experiments Prof. W. G. Johnson found 
thai each female deposited from 98 to 237 eggs, the egg period lasting 
from eighteen to twenty-one days, and the period of oviposition cover- 
ing from thirty-eight to forty-two days. Forbes also records in his 
Fifth Report (p. 44) experiments showing that the period of incuba- 
tion may cover from twelve to twenty-two days. (See Forbes’s 19th 
Report, pp. 177-183.) It must be remembered, however, that Pro- 
fessor Johnson had but six females employed in his experiments and 
that these were necessarily under an artificial environment. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT. 
The following descriptions of the egg and various stages of the 
young bugs are taken from Riley’s Seventh Missouri Report, while 
that of the adult is from 
the original by ThomasSay, 
as published in his Ameri- 
can Entomology (Vol. I, p. 
329, Le Conte Ed.) : - f 
The egg.—Average length 0.03 
inch, elongate-oval, the diame- 
ter scarcely 4 the length. The 
top squarely docked and sur- 
mounted with four small : 
: E ; Fig. 2.—Blissus leucopterus: a, b, eggs; c, newly hatched 
rounded tubercles near the cén- larva; d, its tarsus; e, larva after first molt; /, same after 
ter. Color, when newly laid, second molt; g, pupa; the natural sizes indicated at 
pale or whitish, and translu- sides; h, enlarged leg of perfect bug; 7, tarsus of same, 
still more enlarged; 7, proboscis or beak, enlarged. 
(From Riley.) 
cent, acquiring with age an 
amber color, and finally show- 
ing the red parts of the embryo, and especially the eyes toward tubercled end. 
The size increases somewhat after deposition, and will sometimes reach near 0.04 
inch in length. (Fig. 2, a, b.) 
Larval stages—The newly hatched larva is pale yellow, with simply an 
orange stain on the middle of the three larger abdominal joints. The form 
scarcely differs from that of the mature bug, being but slightly more elongate ; 
but the tarsi have but two joints and the head is relatively broader and more 
rounded, while the joints of body are subequal, the prothoracie joint being but 
slightly longer than any of the rest. The red color soon pervades the whole 
body, except the first two abdominal joints, which remain yellowish, and the 
members, which remain pale. 
After the first molt the red is quite bright vermilion, contrasting strongly 
with the pale band across the middle of the body, the prothoracie joint is 
relatively longer, and the metathoracic shorter. The head and prothorax are 
dusky and coriaceous, and two broad marks on mesothorax, two smaller ones on 
metathorax, two on the fourth and fifth abdominal sutures, and one at tip of 
abdomen are generally visible, but sometimes obsolete; the third and fourth 
joints of antennze are dusky, but the legs still pale. After the second molt the 
head and thorax are quite dusky and the abdomen duller red, but the pale trans- 
verse band is still distinct; the wing pads become apparent, the members are 
- more dusky, there is a dark-red shade on the fourth and fifth abdominal joints, 
