74 THE CHINCH BUG. 
INDICATIONS OF A PROBABLE DISTANT ORIGIN AND LATER DIFFUSION. 
In the United States our chinch bug, Blissus leucopterus, has a 
number of peculiar characteristics, which, while having an economic 
interest, also point to a probable previous condition differing some- 
what from the present, and not in all cases tending toward its present 
numerical strength. On the other hand, we find that it is now fol- 
lowing some probably ancient habits which do not appear to be of 
any special benefit, but rather the reverse. 
In the first place, over its area of greatest destruction, it appears to 
prefer level tracts of country where the damp conditions consequent 
upon frequent rainfalls remain the longest, and in the second place, 
the period of spring oviposition is for the most part included within 
that during which the spring rains of the United States usually 
occur—that is to say, throughout the great grain belt, east of the 
Rocky Mountains, April and May are not normally months of severe 
drought, and it is during these two months that the larger portion 
of the eggs are deposited. As in the reverse of this, however, the 
period of fall oviposition, August and September, is far more likely 
io be favored by a lack of precipitation. These conditions do not 
always obtain, and it is because of the fluctuations that the insect 
is able to reach its maximum in point of numbers. 
Another factor which plays quite an important part in reducing the 
number of adults maturing during unfavorable seasons may be found 
in the almost universally gregarious habits of the young, thereby ren- 
dering the ravages of fungous diseases the more universal and fatal. 
In all of these peculiar characteristics as well as in some anatomical 
features, it would seem as if we had a series of guide posts, so to 
speak, which indicate more or less clearly the ancient home of the 
species, and at least throw some light on its origin and diffusion. 
JTNIQUE APPEARANCE AND GREGARIOUS HABIT. 
Mr. Kk. A. Schwarz“ some time ago called attention to “ the unique 
appearance of the full-grown chinch bug, with its white wings and 
chalky-white pubescence,” which, he declared, “ forcibly indicates 
that the insect is either a psammophilous or a maritime species,” and 
expressed the opinion that its geographical distribution fully bears 
out the theory that it belongs to the latter class. The same author 
states that the species has the habit of clustering about the roots of 
tufts of grass along the Atlantic coast, from Florida to Atlantic City, 
N. J., and Mr. W. H. Harrington ® observed it to have the same habit 
along the seashore at Sydney, Cape Breton, in 1884. The late Dr. 
@Insect Life, Vol. VII, p. 420. 
bCan. Ent., Vol. XXVI, p. 218. 
