FOOD PLANTS. 29 
to wither, when they simply crawl to the nearest plants and again 
congregate upon these as before. In case the migration has been 
to a field of corn, if this is badly overgrown with either of the two 
grasses previously named, the bugs will collect upon the latter, and 
unless the corn plants are very small they will not as a rule attack 
them until the grass has been killed. Some farmers have gone so 
far as to claim that a benefit is derived from a certain abundance 
of chinch bugs, the statement being made that the bugs will lll 
out these grasses to an extent that nothing else will. It is clear 
that the acquisition of wings is not the signal for the adults to 
abandon the companionship of the larve and pup, yet they do 
gradually disappear from among them. It is possible that the 
disposition to pair does not exist until the individual has reached 
a certain age beyond seeming maturity, and that it is not until the 
passion for mating has overcome their gregarious inclination that 
they are disposed to migrate. Or it may be that the phenomenon 
may be explained on the supposition that when the pairing season 
approaches the males scatter out in order to find females with which 
they are not akin, thus following out natural selection and prevent- 
ing a continual interbreeding. Over the northern United States, 
at least, the injury in cultivated fields is done almost entirely by the 
young bugs, but in the timothy meadows the damage is due as much, 
if not more, to the depredations of the adults. 
FCOD PLANTS. 
As to food plants, there can be no doubt that these consisted origi- 
nally of the native grasses. This is amply proved by the observa- 
tions of Fitch and Le Baron, in Ulinois; Dr. J. C: Neal, in Florida 
and Oklahoma; Marlatt, in Kansas; Schwarz, in Florida; and by 
those of Mr. Henry G. Hubbard in the midst of the Colorado desert 
in California. Regarding this last statement, Mr. E. A. Schwarz 
wrote as follows: 
You may be interested to learn that chinch bugs were collected this year 
(1897) on March 28 by Mr. H. G. Hubbard, at Salton, in the midst of the 
Colorado desert of California, This locality is considerably below the ocean level, 
and represents an ancient extension of the Gulf of California. Even at the 
present time the Salton Basin is occasionally flooded, the water entering through 
New River, which runs from the mouth of the Colorado River into the Salton 
Basin. The specimens were taken on a species of coarse grass which is 
incrusted with a saline deposit. 
No wonder that the chinch bug is accused of being a seashore 
species ! 
Of cultivated grasses, or such as occur in cultivated fields, probably 
Txophorus glaucus and Panicum crus-galli are the favorites, though 
millet and Hungarian grass are apparently nearly as attractive. As 
