60 THE CHINCH BUG. 
INVERTEBRATE ENEMIES OF THE CHINCH BUG. 
Of the invertebrate enemies the same may be said as of the frog. 
The writer has occasionally found a chinch bug containing a species 
of Mermis, “ hair snake.” Also occasionally ants may be seen drag- 
ging these bugs away, while lady-beetles have sometimes been found 
to devour them, as recorded by Walsh and Forbes. Perhaps the 
worst insect enemies of the chinch bug are to be 
found among its comparatively near relatives, 
the insidious flower bug, 7'7riphleps insidiosus 
Say (Anthocoris pseudo-chinche of Fitch’s See- 
ond Report) (fig. 15), and Milyas cinctus Fab. 
(fig. 16), the latter being reported by Doctor 
Thomas as the most efficient of the insect ene- 
mies of this pest, while Doctor Riley found that 
the former also attacked it. Professor Forbes 
ascertained by examinations of the contents of 
Fic. 15,—Triphleps insidio- the stomach of a ground beetle, Agonoderus 
sus Fab. (From Riley.) allipes Fab., that one-fifth of the total food of 
this species was composed of chinch bugs. Doctors Shimer and 
Walsh both claim that lace-wing flies (CArysopa) destroy chinch 
bugs, and they are doubtless correct. The writer has also very often 
found dead chinch bugs entangled in spider webs, though whether 
killed for food or by accident it has been impossible to determine. 
It will be seen, however, that the combined influence of all of the 
natural enemies of the chinch bug, parasitic fungi excepted, is far 
too weak to offer any material protection to : 
the agriculturist against this pernicious 
enemy of his crops, with nothing to promise 
an improved condition of affairs in this 
direction in the future. There may some- 
times appear hymenopterous parasites of 
the eggs, but we have as yet no proof of the 
existence of such in this country, and only 
suspect the possibility of such a phenome- | 
non because other allied species have similar _—_‘F"¢- 16.—Milyas cinetus Fab. 
: ; é (From Riley.) 
enemies, which destroy their eggs. In 
short, the immunity of the chinch bug from attacks of other organ- 
isms is so striking that it has attracted the attention of all entomolo- 
gists who have made a study of the species, and all accept this as indi- 
cating that it is an exotic, not originally belonging to our insect fauna. 
REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 
The list will include all remedial and preventive measures that have 
been found to possess the merit of reasonable efficiency and practica- 
bility. These may not all prove applicable in all localities or under 
