9 
From the standpoint of control no feature of the life history of this 
insect is so important as its overwintering habit. The general belief 
has been that the species hibernates beneath rubbish, such as old straw, 
or matted grass, or leaves in hedge rows, and this is probably often 
the case to a certain extent, but undoubtedly the normal place of hiber- 
nation is in the dense stools, especially of wild grasses, and also of 
such cultivated grasses as incline to the stooling habit. 
Autumnal flight.—Toward the last of September the chinch bug 
begins its autumnal flight, and very shortly thereafter disappears 
entirely from the fields of corn or other late crops. In this flight it 
frequently goes some distance from the fields which it has infested, 
and, finding in these grass stools favorable situations, works its way 
well down into the stool, almost or quite beneath the surface of the 
ground, or into the soil which has been caught and held by the dense 
bunches of grass. In thesesituations chinch bugs may be found during 

Fig. 3.—Chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus) adults of short-winged form—much enlarged (adapted 
from Webster). 
the winter, a single grass stool frequently harboring hundreds of 
insects. So marked is this hibernating habit that it is reasonable to 
infer that it is the normal and ancient one of the species, the natural 
food plants of which before the advent of settlement and the growth 
of cereals were these same native grasses. Where cultivation has 
destroyed these grasses, and the chinch bug is no longer able to find 
such localities for winter concealment, it undoubtedly hibernates under 
rubbish and in the other situations suggested. The bearing of this 
hibernating habit on remedies will be noted later. 
Life cycle.—The annual life cycle of this insect may be exhibited by 
the following summary, based on a careful study, made by the writer 
in eastern Kansas. The dates given will hold for the middle region 
occupied by this insect, but northward there will be a retardation, and 
southward an acceleration, in the times of appearance and the develop- 
ment of the different broods. 
April 10-20, spring flight from hibernating quarters in grass stools to wheat fields. 
April 20-30, in coitu about the roots of wheat. 
May 1-31, deposition of eggs on wheat roots beneath the surface of the soil, with 
young hatching from May 15 to June 15. 
59405—Bull. 132—08 2 

