16 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OP 



beak, the juices of our cereals, thereby causing them to shrink and 

 wither, and not by gnawing or biting their substance, as many per- 

 sons suppose. Insignificant as is the minute puncture of a single in- 

 dividual, yet these insects often appear in such countless numbers as 

 to bleed to death whole fields of grain by their myriad beaks. 



If the Western Fruit-grower is asked, what particular insect is the 

 most difficult for him to combat, and the most destructive to his crops, 

 he will probably answer "The Curculio." If the same question is put 

 to the Western Grain-grower, he will infallibly reply "The Chinch 

 Bug." And he will be in the right. The Wheat-midge — popularly 

 known in the West as the "Weevil" or the "Red Weevil " — does a 

 considerable amount of damage, in particular years and in particular 

 localities, by its little legless orange-colored lava sucking away the 

 sap from the growing kernel of wheat. The Hessian Fly — often called 

 simply "the Fly " — injures the wheat by the maggot that produces it 

 living between the stem and the sheath of the blade, and intercepting 

 the sap before that sap can reach the ear. The Grain Plant-louse, easily 

 distinguished from the above two little pests by its long sprawling 

 legs, has in certain years somewhat injured the small grain in ttie West 

 by accumulating, first on the growing stem and afterwards on the ear, 

 and abstracting the sap with its long pointed beak. There are also, 

 in all probability, several minute Two-winged Flies, which do more 

 or less injury to the growing grain by their larvas breeding in the 

 stem, the natural history of one of which, the American w Moromyza, 

 was given for the first time in my First Report (pp. 159-61). The larva 

 of an unknown moth, which burrows upwards and downwards in the 

 stem of oats, and probably of wheat also, causing the ear to become 

 prematurely white and the kernel to be entirely blasted, also in some 

 years does considerable damage. The White Grub, the Wire-worm, 

 and certain Cut- worms take a certain per centage of the young grain, 

 almost as soon as it peeps out of the ground. But undoubtedly the 

 meanest bug, out of the whole crowd of the multifarious insect-foes of 

 the grain-growing farmer, is the Chinch Bug. He is not satisfied with 

 taking a field here and a field there, and sparing the remainder. But 

 when his time comes — and in mercy to the Western Farmer we are 

 not cursed every year with this little savage — he sweeps the whole 

 country with the besom of destruction. The Wheat-midge, the Hes- 

 sian Fly, and the Grain Plant-louse, destructive as they are to small 

 grain, yet spare our corn. If they take the good white wheaten bread 

 out of our mouths, they yet leave us an ample supply of corn-dodgers. 

 But the Chinch Bug makes a clean sweep, whenever he gets the up- 

 per hand of us. He " goes the entire hog." Nothing in the way of 

 grain comes amiss to him. He is not dainty, not he ! Whenever he 

 gets a chance to spread himself, he first of all at one fell swoop de- 

 stroys the small grain, and then fastens his liquorish beak upon the 

 corn and takes that also. 



