jind, indeed, threatened to invade New York and New England. In 

 recent years, however, its progress in the northern States has been 

 checked by atmospheric conditions. 



This phmt-bug accomplishes its work of destruction b}' sucking the 

 sap from leaves and veins of cabbage and other crucifers, the af- 

 fected plants wilting, withering, and dying as if they had been swept 

 b}' fire, whence the name " fire bug." It is a pest which, if permitted 

 to proj)agate unmolested in seasons which favor its increase, is certain 

 to destroy a portion if not all of the fields which it infests. A half 

 dozen mature insects are capable of destroying a small plant in one 

 or two days. Some years ago, wiien this species was abundant in' 

 the vicinity of the District of Columbia, the writer saw many large 

 fields in Maryland and Virginia from which not a single good cab- 

 bage could be picked, and observed similar injury to horse-radish 

 iind some other crucifers. 



The harlequin bug has been compared to the boll weevil as a pest 

 in the South and to the San Jose scale as a scourge in New Jersey'. 

 Certainly it is to the cabbage grower what the other two insects are 

 to the cotton planter and fruit raiser respectively. If growers gen- 

 erallj^, however, will undertake the methods of control, as advised 

 in this circular, there is no reason why it should be longer destructive. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



The name harlequin cabbage bug scarcely requires explanation to 

 any one familar with the appearance of the insect. Its gay red and 

 black ornamentation is suggestive of the dress of the stage harlequin. 

 In the figure of the adult (fig. 1, «) the dark portions illustrated are 

 either black or dark metallic blue and the light portions are bright 

 yellow in freshly transformed bugs and red in fulh* hardened in- 

 dividuals. 



The eggs (fig. 1, h) are beautiful objects and remarkable for the 

 fact that they closelj^ imitate in miniature white barrels bound with 

 black hoops and with black spots set in the proper place for bung- 

 holes. 



The younger stages, or nymphs, of this species bear considerable re- 

 semblance to the mature form, ditfering, however, in the lack of 

 wings and in having only four joints to the antenna?, whereas the adult 

 has five. There are five stages in all, illustrated at r, d, c, /, and </. 

 In the third and fourth nymphal stages the body is hemispherical and 

 the resemblance to a turtle or terrapin is striking. 



OISTUIBIITION.- 



The harlequin cabbage bug is a native of Mexico and Central 

 America — where it obviously originated — and perhaps also of the 

 semitropical regions in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. It was first 



icir, lor;] 



