UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN ‘Se 
WasuHineTon, D. C. 762 OctroBER 21, 1916 
Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology, L. O. Howard, Chief. 
THE FALSE CHINCH BUG' AND MEASURES FOR 
CONTROLLING IT. 
By F. B. Miuurken, Scientific Assistant, Truck Crop and Stored Product Insect 
Investigations. ; 
INTRODUCTORY. 
The grower or gardener of the plateau region east of the Rocky 
Mountains is often alarmed to note that his sugar beets or cabbages, 
which a day or two previously had been apparently free from insects, 
are swarming with minute, active, 
grayish bugs which, by their numbers, 
threaten the profitable harvesting of 
his crop. These insects belong to the 
species commonly known as the false 
chinch bug. 
A severe outbreak of this pest, espe- 
cially in Kansas and Colorado, during 
May and June, 1916, makes it desir- 
able to inform market gardeners and 
Fie. 1.—The false chinch bug (Nysius 
sugar-beet growers of the best means “ ¢ricac): Aault at right, last stage of 
that have been developed for combat- nymph at left. Highly magnified. 
ing it in that region. The ability to Migbeoaic whe it 
recognize the insect when it appears and a knowledge of its life 
‘history and habits are essential to the successful application of 
remedial measures. 
The adult false chinch bug (fig. 1) is about one-eighth of an inch 
long and one-twentieth of an inch wide, or about half the length and 
half the width of a grain of wheat. To one familiar with the true 
chinch bug it is sufficient to say that the false chinch bug resembles 
it, including the offensive odor, but is more slender, and there is no 
1 Nysius ericae Schill. (N. angustatus Uhl.); family Lygaéidae, order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera. 
55507°—Bull. 762—16 
