REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 55 
quoted. Mr. Koebele writes that the False Chinch was so abundant 
around Alameda in July that in an old road at least fifty specimens 
‘could be found under each plant of Polygonwm aviculare. He made 
in 1887 a most careful eat of the locality in which he found the 
1885 specimen, but could not find a single additional individual. He 
also examined the large collection of Hemiptera in the California 
Academy of Sciences without success. The following paragraph is 
- from Mr, Coquillett’s answer to our inquiries: 
. *T have never met with the Chinch-bug in any part of California 
that I have visited—neither in Merced County, around the city of 
_ Sacramento, nor on the southern part of the State, where I have col- 
- lected Hemiptera extensively with the sweep-net. Dr. Rivers, cura- 
tor of the museum at our State University, writes me that three years 
ago he took three specimens of a bug that that looked much like the 
- Chinch Bug, but was darker and smaller, and he does not believe 
_ that they belonged to this species; they were taken in Sonoma County 
and were sent off he knows not where, He has collected Hemip- 
'9ra extensively since then, but the Chinch Bug is not among them, 
_ Mr. Wickson, editor of the Pacific Rural Press, writes me that he 
has ‘never seen a specimen nor heard of one as being recognized by 
- an observer whom I would consider as capable of recognizing the 
» insect.’” 
Since writing the above we have learned from Mr. Uhler that he 
has seen specimens of the Chinch Bug from California of a long- 
winged form which were collected near San Francisco, probably by 
Mr. Hy. Edwards. He has also seen specimens from Cuba and rf om 
Tamaulipas, Mexico. 
INJURY DURING 1887. 
During the present year (1887) the injury was marked in these 
States and also in some parts of Missouri, but the interesting point 
in the history of this season has been the occurrence of the insects in 
great numbers in portions of Virginia and North and South Carolina 
for the first time in many years, although no considerable damage 
has been reported to the Department. As a review of the localities 
and damage this season is desirable we publish a statement by Mr. 
J. R. Dodge, the Statistician of this Department, who has kindly 
prepared it at our request. 
Mr. Dodge reports as follows: 
“In accordance with your request, 1 take pleasure in communi- 
cating the results of inquiries made relative to the geographical dis- 
tribution of Chinch-bugs during the past season, and to the extent of 
their destruction of growing crops. — 
‘JT find indications of their presence throughout the Southern and 
Western States, but no material injuries to crops are reported except 
in States bordering on the Mississippi River and the lower Missouri. 
Kansas, part of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, [linois, southern Wis- 
consin, and eastern Minnesota include, practically, the field of their 
serious operations. 
“They attacked wheat and rye first, then barley and oats, and 
afterward corn,-grass, millet, sorghum, and broom-corn. As corn, 
wheat, and oats are the principal! tilled crops of this area, they repre- 
sent the principal part of the damage. 
“In many places the fields were cleared, and small grain areas 
were plowed up. The pest came in some cases to districts that 
