STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 79 
of the sub-order Hetervoptera—are membranous and transparent. ‘The mouth- 
parts are modified into a strong jointed beak with which it punctures the stems 
and leaves of the plant andextracts the sap. When crushed or even handled it 
gives forth a rank, sickish sweet ordor, only a little less disagreeable than that 
of the chinch bug, or its other wingless relative, the bed-bug. 
The mature bugs seek shelter during winter, under the loose bark of trees and 
in cracks of buildings and fences and are warmed into activity in the spring 
about the tyme that the squash vines have begun to grow. If sought for at this 
time, the bugs will be found in pairs on the ground, or on the under sides of the 
leaves and as they are quite sluggish, are easily killed. The females lay their 
eggs at night on the under surfaces of the leaves and in a few days the young 
bugs hatch out and begin their work of destruction. The transformations of the 
true bugs are not so marked as in most other orders of insects. The larve of 
this specie do not differ much in structure from the parent insect except in lack- 
ing the wings and in their size and paler color. They remain at first huddled 
together, their innumerable punctures causing the leaf upon which they are con- 
gregated to curl up and wither, when they betake themselves to a fresh one 
Sometimes they cluster around the stem and by absorbing the sap from the 
main vessels. soon kill the plant outright. The best preventative is to search for 
and kill the old bugs in the spring and to crush the egg masses wherever found. 
Salt, ashes, and lime are considered remedies to some extent. A correspondent 
of one of our agricultural papers says that a table-spoonful of salt-peter dissolved 
in a pailful of water and used as a drench for the vines has been found a com- 
plete remedy for the bugs and acts at the same time as a fertilizer to the plant. 
There is another insect which does not confine its ravages to squashes, but 
feeds with equal greediness on all plants of the Gourd family and several others 
beside. This is the so-called striped bug, (Diabrotica vittata, Fabr.). tis not, 
however, a ‘‘bug’’ at all, but a handsome little beetle of a glossy, greenish-yel- 
low color, with a black head and three broad, black stripes down the back. It 
occurs in all parts of the country and annually destroys a large percentage of 
the cucumber, melon and squash crop. It hibernates, mostly, in the pupa 
state, and appears very early in the spring; ready to cut off the first tiny sprouts 
of our vines. The eggs are laid around the roots of the plants and those of the 
latter that survive the voracity of the perfect insects, are very liable to die later 
on of root disease, caused by the gnawings and borings of the larve, small, 
white grrbs, which, when full grown, change to pupe in the earth. There are 
several generations in a season and the beetles being quite long-lived, one can 
usually find the insect in all its stages from June to September. ‘The applica- 
tions that have been found most effective are a mixture of Paris green and flour, 
such as is used for the Potato beetle, also ashes and air slacked lime. ‘There is 
no record of experiments made on this insect with the new Pyrethrum powder 
nor with London purple, but they will no doubt prove good remedies. 
Two species of clear-winged moths are also serious enemies of the same fami- 
ly of plants. 
One of these, the Eastern Squash Borer, (/geria curcubite, Harris) is, in 
its perfect state, a beautiful orange-colored moth, with transparent under-wings 
and a metallic blue-green body, with the legs tufted with orange colored hairs. 
The larve are thick, white caterpillars, and are found late in summer boring 
the stalks of the plants and suddenly killing the vine. The borer usually de- 
serts the vine when full grown and encloses itself in an earthen cell before 
