' Inany other insects, the green-bug has 
The Green-Bug or Spring Grain-Aphis. 7 
hatching, are green with black feet, and begin to suck the sap from 
the grain almost immediately. The same is true regarding those 
born alive, as within a very short time they are to be found busily 
engaged in securing their nourishment from the wheat or oat plants 
at the expense of the grower. 
The bugs do not change materially in color throughout their lives 
and the figures show the appearance of the various stages of the 
insect. As it requires only from 6 
to 7 days for the young green-bug 
to become adult and begin to produce 
its young, the pest is able to multiply 
enormously during the most favor- 
able season of the year and with most 
dangerous rapidity. It may have at 
least 20 generations a year in the lati- 
tude of Richmond, Ind., and even 
more in its favorite abode in Texas. 
A single female may produce from 
one to eight young per day for periods 
of at least two or three weeks. Unlike 
no resting stage, and the adult insects 
are quite as injurious as the young 
ones, feeding almost continuously 
from the time they are born until old 
age overtakes them. 
The green-bug secures its food by 
sucking the sap or juices of the plants 
upon which it feeds; it takes no solid 
food of any kind. Its effects upon | 
the grain plants are quickly notice- il 
able, as they appear in the form of ye, 5.—The spring grain-aphis: 
yellow areas (fig. 7) on the blades, Eggs as deposited on leaf: a, 
: A : Dorsal view; b, lateral view. 
which turn reddish brown and die. It Greatly enlarged. (Webster and 
is probable that this pest in some way Phillips.) 
poisons the tissues of the plants, although this theory has* not been 
proved. 
NATURAL ENEMIES. 
The principal reason why the green-bug is not injurious every year 
is the fact that it is attacked and kept in check by a very small wasp- 
like parasite (fig. 8). This little friend of the grain grower lays 
its eggs directly in the bodies of the green-bugs, both young and 
old, and the maggots hatching from these eggs devour the bugs (fig. 
9), destroying them in great numbers. Unfortunately, however, this 
