SQUASH-BUG FAMILY. 79 
usually selected for shade-trees. They form also a large pro- 
portion of the trees utilized for wind-breaks and timber claims. 
Considering this rapid increase in their numbers it is no wonder 
at all that insects which utilize this tree as food should also in- 
crease very rapidly. This has been the case, and where a few 
years ago the Box elder Bug was an unknown insect it is now 
found in large and increasing numbers. Still this great increase 
would not be noticed, or only by a few more observing persons, 
if this insect did not possess the peculiar habit of crowding to- 
gether late in autumn, preliminary to searching for suitable quar- 
ters to hibernate. As soon as the foliage of the box elder be- 
comes dry and discolored, or, in other words, as soon as the 
leaves of the tree no longer offer liquid sap to the insects, these 
desert such useless sources of food, and descend to the limbs 
and trunks of the trees. Here they gather in large numbers, 
perhaps to hold indignation meetings about the shortness of 
summer and food supplies! At all events they crowd together, 
old and young, as if waiting for better times. Whenever the sun 
shines and warms one side of the trunk, or the sidewalk below 
the tree, there these bugs are sure to congregate. Later, and 
when the leaves commence to drop, all bugs have reached their 
full size, all are winged. But they do not use their wings, and 
are very sensible not to do so, because they assuredly would be 
blown about the adjoining prairies and would perish. They now 
search for winter quarters. If the sidewalk under the box 
elder trees, their old homes, should be a wooden one, most of 
the bugs will find shelter under it. If no such shelters are found, 
however, the insects enter barns and stables, and are not slow 
to even enter houses, much to the disgust of the ladies of the 
household. The bugs are decidedly stupid, at least they cannot 
be scared away, but have to be forcibly ejected. This habit of 
crowding into dwellings has been the cause of many complaints. 
The life-history of this box elder bug is told in a few words: 
here in Minnesota it infests only the box elder, not having as 
yet been found injurious to other trees. The bugs, being suck- 
ing insects, insert the organs of suction, which are enclosed in 
their beaks, into the tissue of the leaves, always choosing their 
under side. Here they live in plenty, undergoing all their 
changes from a young larva to the adult insect, until the supply 
