r^SYCHE. 



THE CORN DELPHACID, DELPHAX MAIDIS. 



BV WILLIAM HARRIS ASHMEAD, JACKSONVILLE, FLA. 



As is well known, the rapid changes 

 taking place in the environments of a 

 new country, under the influence of 

 settlement and modern civilization, by 

 the destruction of the forests and the cul- 

 tivation of the soil, induce corresponding 

 changes in the natural environment of 

 insect life. 



The natui'al food plants of hosts of in- 

 sects are destroyed, and these are com- 

 pelled, by the changed conditions, to 

 seek among the plants brought by civili- 

 zation such food as will sustain existence 

 and perpetuate their species. Under 

 these civilizing transformations, there- 

 fore, new insect pests are continually 

 being brought to notice, appearing on 

 some well known crop previously en- 

 tirely exempt from their attacks, do 

 great injury, cause the planter anxiety, 

 attract the attention of the entomologist, 

 and require skill and prompt measures 

 for their destruction and the saving of a 

 crop, 



A new insect pest has lately appeared 

 on corn in Florida, to which I have 

 given the above name, that peculiarly 

 illustrates this point. 



It belongs to the family fulgoridae^ 

 subfamily delphacinae^ in the order hem- 



iptera, or suctorial bugs, and is apparently 

 unknown to science, although found in 

 great numbers on growing corn in my 

 garden, and on coarse grass elsewhere. 

 Up to the present time, no species in 

 this family, at least to my knowledge, 

 has as yet been described or reported as 

 living on or injuring this cereal in either 

 the United States or Canada. 



Many years ago, however. Prof. West- 

 wood, in the annals and magazine of 

 natural history, v. 6. p. 413, published 

 in London, England, in 1841, illustrated 

 and described a species, very closely re- 

 lated to and resembling it somewhat, as 

 seriously destructive to sugar cane in the 

 West Indies ; so that, after all, it is not 

 so astonishing that a species in this fam- 

 ily should now be found in the United 

 States on so closely allied a food plant. 



The "Corn Delphacid" was detected 

 early in July, 18S8, my attention being 

 first called to it by the number of ants, 

 Cremastogaster lineolarls Say, which 

 were swarming on the leaves and crawl- 

 ing up and down the stalk. Ants never 

 congregate in numbers without cause ; 

 and, an examination as to their super- 

 abundance at this time soon revealed it- 

 self in the discoverv of this new corn 



