FOOD PLANTS. 



Over the western country the major portion of the damage is that 

 accomphshed in fiekls of wheat, barley, rye, and corn, the outbreak 

 generally originating in wheat or barley fields and the bugs migrating 

 at harvest to the cornfields. In the eastern part of the country, 

 where the timothy meadows are the most seriously infested, this is 

 not the case, and here the migrations are as likely to be to the timothy 

 meadows as to the fields of corn where both are equally within reach. 

 Rye and oats are less liable to infestation. The chinch bugs attack 

 sugar cane in Mexico, according to Mr. Albert Koebele. They are 

 known to attack the following grasses: Forked beard-grass {Andropo- 

 gon furcatus) , broom beard-grass (^4. scopariits), oat-grass {Arrhena- 

 therum), bur-grass ( Cenchrus tribuloides) , millet, witch grass (Panicum 

 capillare), barnyard grass (Panicum crus-gaUi), Phragmites sp?, sor- 

 glmm, kaffir corn, large crab-grass (Syntherisma sanguineus), timoth}^, 

 yellow ioxteiil ( Ixophorus glaucus), green foxtail-grass (/. viridis), Ber- 

 muda grass ( Capriola dactylon), and what is locally known in Florida 

 as St, Augustine grass. Prof. Lawrence Bruner has also found it 

 feeding upon so-called buckwheat (Polygonum dumetorum or P. con- 

 volvulus) . 



It will thus be seen that the insect has an ample food supply outside 

 of the cultivated fields. 



LOSSES CAUSED BY CHINCH BUGS. 



It would appear that this pest first made its presence known by 

 its ravages in the wheat fields of the North Carolina farmers, for we 

 are told that '4n 1785 the fields in this State were so overrun with 

 them as to threaten a total destruction of the grain. And at length 

 the crops were so destroj^ed in some districts that farmers were obliged 

 to abandon the sowing of wheat. It was four or five years that they 

 continued so numerous at this time."" 



In the year 1809, as stated by Mr. J. W. Jeffer3^s,'' the chinch bug 

 again became destructive in North Carolina to such an extent that in 

 Orange Count}^ farmers were obliged to suspend the sowing of wheat 

 for two years. In 1839 " the pest again became destructive in the 

 Carolinas and in Virginia, where the bugs migrated from the wheat 

 fields at harvest to the corn, and in 1840 there was a similar outbreak, 

 and both wheat and corn were seriously injured. In all of these cases, 

 however, there is no recorded estimate of the actual financial losses 

 resulting from the attacks of the chinch bug. According to Le Baron, 



o Webster on Pestilence, Vol. I, p. 279. Not seen. Quoted from Fitch. 

 6 Albany Cultivator, first series, Vol. VI, p. 201. 

 cThe Cultivator, Vol. VI, p. 103. 

 [Cir. 113] 



