2 
office and on the outside of the building, where they were crawling 
around on the brick walls. In 1885 specimens were received from 
Ranch, Utah, with an account of damage to apples. As early as 1889 
they were received from different parts of Nebraska; in 1891 from the 
State of Washington, and later from different parts of these States, and 
from Dickinson, Tex., Idaho, North and South Dakota, various localities 
in Iowa, Luverne and Tracy, Minn., Madison, Wis., and Erie, Ill. In 
1894 living specimens were received from two Pennsylvania localities, 
the one from Libonia, where, in December, they were reported as dam- 
aging hothouse plants, and the other in August from Kennett Square, 
where they were found on squashes. These are the only two far eastern 
occurrences known. Assuming that the box-elder tree is the normal 
food of the species, it seems likely that the insect will gradually gain the 
widespread distribution of this tree, and, as when very numerous its 
capacity for damage to ripening fruit has been shown, it may eventu- 
ally become a species of considerable economic importance. The 
insect has been written up by Professor Popenoe in Volume II of the 
“American Entomologist’; by Dr. Lintner in his Fourth and Tenth 
Annual Reports as State Entomologist of New York; by Dr. Lugger in 
Bulletin No. 43 of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station; by 
Prof. C. V. Piper in Bulletin No. 17 of the Washington Agricultural 
Experiment Station, and numerous items about it have been published 
in the seven volumes of Insect Life. 
NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. 
During the winter the adult insect hibernates in all sorts of sheltered 
localities. It is especially abundant in fences, crevices of stone walls, 
and in the angles of stone buildings, on the south side of which they 
are reported to appear singly and in clusters upon every warm day dur- 
ing the season. When spring opens and the buds of the box-elder begin 
to burst they scatter from their hibernating places and seek their food 
plant. The eggs are laid normally in the crevices of the bark of the 
food plant, but the instinct of the mother-bug is by no means true, 
since she will oviposit in almost any situation, frequently even laying 
eggs in her hibernating quarters. Few of the young hatching from such 
eggs will ever reach a suitable tree. In Kansas the first adults begin 
to appear after midsummer and at this time bugs of all sizes begin to 
congregate in lines up and down the trunks and branches of the trees. 
According to Professor Popenoe they may frequently be seen crowding - 
ina broad line extending from the ground up to the secondary branches, 
in a company including larve of all sizes, pupz, and fully matured 
individuals. When the leaves drop, practically all are full grown and 
they fly away in search of winter quarters. They feed upon a number 
of different plants, preferring however, the boxelder. When they fly 
