Attack on young plants is much more serious than on older and 

 larger ones, a few punctures sometimes being sufficient to cause their 

 death. Soon after being punctured, the tips and leaves wilt or droop 

 and eventualhMlie. Later in the season the bugs do little harm, as the 

 vines b}' this time have acquired sufficient vigor to resist attack. 



Injury by this squash bug is sometimes exaggerated in reported cases, 

 the damage observed being often due to other insects which are less apt 

 to be noticed. We seldom find fewer than three or four forms of injuri- 

 ous insects present upon an infested plant at the same time, and this 

 squash bug on account of its large size is more apt to attract attention 

 than are the much smaller but more destructive striped cucumber beetle 

 and melon louse ; the squash- vine borer by reason of its secluded man- 

 ner of living concealed within the vines is not so readily detected, and 

 the result is that the squash bug receives the 

 blame for the depredations of the others. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The common squash bug is known throughout 



Oi\ \9/A ■ practically the entire United States, being par- 

 M w/^fe ticularlj' abundant east of the Rocky Mountains, 



where it ranges from Maine to the Gulf States. 

 It is also recorded westward to Colprado, New 



Judging by 

 ,™hf .■^'i'^nripun^lofe'gg!' Published records and the correspondence of this 

 (/. egR t'iustei-~((. /;, about oHice it is niost injurious in the southern portion 



five times natural size; '/. .. »t i-> i i x^ \' i /^i • r i- i 



one-fouitheniaiKeci:f, great- oi JNew Enghmd, JNew 1 ork, Uluo, Indiana, and 

 {ratk.n)'.''''" (author's iiius- Michigan, although, of course, more or less harm- 

 ful in many other States. In certain of the other 

 States which it i,s known to inhabit it is less troublesome, except occasion- 

 ally in small gardens. This species also occurs in Canada and is recorded 

 from Bi'itish Honduras and Mexico.^ 



Fl(j 2. — Kggs of Aiiasn tristis: 

 «, from below, showing point -., . . . i n i-p 



of attachment ;(). from side, Mexico, Arizona, and Caliiorma. 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 



Injury may begin soon after the first sprouting of the plants, 

 or after the plants have made some considerable growth, and may 

 continue until their death or the departure of the bugs to places of 

 concealment for hil)ernation. The plants are first attacked 1)3' the 

 hibernated bugs. Soon after their first appearance, which varies 

 according to temperature and locality from early spring in the South 

 to late in June farther north, the insects copulate and begin the deposi- 

 tion of their eggs, attaching tliem by an adhesive secretion to the leaves 

 in masses of three or four to forty or more. The eggs, shown in the 

 illustration (fig. 2, a, It), are metallic brown or bronze in color and 

 flattened on tliree sides. They are* laid usually on the under side of a 

 leaf, but not infrequently also on the upper side ; often in regular 

 rows, but sometimes less regularly ; and either separated as in the larger 

 mass at d, or more closely crowded togetlier as in the smaller mass. 

 They are whitish when first laid, but soon cliange to bronze, and hatch 

 in from eight to thirteen daj'S into small green and black creatures, which 

 resemble somewhat the mature insects but ditfer in having proportion- 



iSeeW. L. Distant, Biol. Cent. Amer., Rhynchota, p. 139, for distribution and 

 bibliography. 



