THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 15 



tree received from a distance should be examined from " top to 

 stern," as the sailors say, before it is planted, and all insects, in what- 

 ever state they may be, destroyed. There can be do doubt that many 

 of our worst insect foes may be guarded against by these precautions. 

 The Canker-worm, the different Tussock-moths or Vaporer-moths, the 

 Bark-lice of the Apple and of the Pine, and all other scale insects 

 (Coccidce), the Apple-tree Root-louse, etc., are continually being 

 transported from one place to another, either in earth, on scions, or 

 on the roots, branches, and leaves of young trees ; and they are all 

 possessed of such limited powers of locomotion, that unless trans- 

 ported in some such manner, they would scarcely spread a dozen 

 miles in a century. 



In the Pacific States, fruit-growing is a most profitable business, 

 because they are yet free from many of the fruit insects which so in- 

 crease our labors here. In the language of our late lamented Walsh, 

 "although in California the Blest, the Chinese immigrants have al- 

 ready erected their joss houses, where they can worship Buddha with- 

 out fear of interruption, yet no ' Little Turk' has imprinted the cres- 

 cent symbol of Mahometanism upon the the Californian plums and 

 the Californian peaches." But how long the Californians will retain 

 this immunity, now that they have such direct communication with 

 infested States, will depend very much on how soon they are warned 

 of their danger. I suggest to our Pacific friends that they had better 

 " take the bull by the horns," and endeavor to retain the vantage 

 ground they now enjoy. I also sincerely hope that the day will soon 

 come when there shall be a sufficient knowledge of this subject 

 throughout the land, to enable the nation to guard against foreign in- 

 sect plagues ; the State against those of other States, and the indi- 

 vidual against those of his neighbors. 



THE CHINCH BUG— Micropus leucopterus, Say. 



(Heteroptera, Lygaeidae.) 



[Pig. l.] ^ F ew persons will need to be introduced to this 



unsavory little scamp, but, lest perchance, an occa- 

 sional reader may not yet have a clear and correct 

 idea of the meaning of the word Chinch Bug, I repre- 

 sent herewith (Fig. 1) a magnified view of the gen- 

 tleman. The hair-line at the bottom shows the nat- 

 ural size of the little imp, and his colors are coal- 

 black and snow-white. He belongs to the order of 

 Half-winged Bugs (Heteroptera), the same order to 

 which the well known Bed Bug belongs, and he ex- 

 hales the same loathsome smell as does that bed-pest 

 of the human race. He subsists by sucking, with his sharp-poiuted 



