THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 21 



well set forth in the following paragraph taken from the paper above 

 alluded to: 



Mav 16, 1S65, was a delightful, mild, bright, sunny, summer-like 

 day : and I again, for the last time, observed the same highly inter- 

 esting phenomena, which I have noticed above as occurring after the 

 harvest ol 1864 — the atmosphere swarming with Chinch Bugs on the 

 wing. This is their spring ; that was their autumnal nuptial season — 

 their season of love. These remarkable little creatures prefer to conduct 

 their courtships under the searching gaze of the noonday sun, instead 

 of at the midnight hour. They were so numerous, alighting on the 

 pavements in the village, that scarcely a step could be taken without 

 crushing many of them under foot. In a few days, they had all disap- 

 peared ; their breeding grounds were chosen, where they could be found 

 in great numbers, often in pairs. I first noticed this disposition of the 

 Chinch Bug to take wing under the promptings of the love passion, 

 about six years ago, in their autumnal love season. At no other time 

 save their love season, twice a year, have I ever seen one Chinch Bug 

 flying. It is quite remarkable that the winged imago, under no other 

 circumstances will even attempt to use its ample wings. No threat- 

 ening danger, however imminent, whether ot being driven over by 

 grain reapers, wagons, or of being trodden under foot, etc., will prompt 

 it to use its wings to escape. I have tried all imaginable ways to in- 

 duce them to fly, as by threshing among them with bundles of rods or 

 grass, by gathering them up and letting them fall from a height, etc., 

 but they invariably refuse entirely to attempt to use their wings in 

 escaping from danger. The love emotion alone makes them conscious 

 that they are in possession of wings.^ 



I agree entirely with Dr. Shinier as to the facts mentioned in the 

 paragraph, but not as to the conclusions which he deduces. There 

 are many objections to his theory, some of which may be found in the 

 American Entomologist, (Vol. I, pp. 172-3). 



It is a notorious fact that Chinch Bugs do not all mature at once, 

 and if they took wing only when making their courtships, some of 

 them would be flying during a period of several weeks ; and as will 

 be shown presently, there exists a dimorphous short-winged form of 

 the Chinch Bug, which cannot possibly make any such serial love 

 trips. It seems more agreeable to analogy that they take wing only 

 when they have become so unduly numerous that they are in- 

 stinctively aware that they must either emigrate or starve. Be this 

 however as it may, the fact of their being as a general rule unwilling 

 to use their wings is well known to every practical farmer. 



It has long been known that the Chinch Bug deposits its eggs un- 

 derground and upon the roots of the plants which it infests, and that 

 the young larvae remain underground for some considerable time after 

 they hatch out, sucking the sap from the roots. If, in the spring of 

 the year, you pull up a wheat plant in a field badly infested by this 

 insect, you will find hundreds of the eggs attached to the roots; and 

 at a somewhat later period the young larvae may be found clustering 

 upon the roots and looking like so many moving little red atoms. 

 The egg is s0 small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye, of an 

 oval shape, about four times as long as wide, of a pale amber white 



