22 SECOND ANNUAL KEPORT OF 



color when first laid, but subsequently assuming a reddish color from 

 the young larva showing through the transparent shell.* As the 

 mother Chinch Bug has to work her way underground in the spring of 

 the year, in order to get at the roots upon which she proposes to lay 

 her eggs, it becomes evident at once, that the looser the soil is at this 

 time of the year the greater the facilities which are offered for the 

 operation. Hence the great advantage of ploughing land for spring 

 grain in the preceding autumn, or, if ploughed in the spring, rolling 

 it repeatedly with a heavy roller after seeding. And hence the re- 

 mark frequently made by farmers, that wheat harrowed in upon old 

 corn-ground, without any ploughing at all, is far less infested by 

 Chinch Bug than wheat put in upon land that has been ploughed. 

 There is another fact which has been repeatedly noticed by practical 

 men. This insect cannot live and thrive and multiply in land that is 

 sopping with water; and it generally commences its operations in 

 early spring upon those particular parts of every field where the soil 

 is the loosest and the driest. 



The female occupies about three weeks in depositing her eggs, 

 and, according to Dr. Shimer's estimate, she deposits about 500. The 

 egg requires about two weeks to hatch, and the bug becomes full 

 grown and acquires its wings in from 40 to 50 days after hatching. 

 [Fig. 2.] ^ There are, as is well known to Entomologists, 



many genera of the Half-winged Bugs, which in 

 Europe occur in two distinct or "dimorphous" forms, 

 with no intermediate grades between the two; 

 namely, a short-winged or sometimes even a com- 

 pletely wingless type and a long-winged type. Fre- 

 quently the two occur promiscuously together, and 

 are found promiscuously copulating so that they can- 

 not possibly be distinct species. Sometimes the long- 

 winged type occurs in particular seasons and es- 

 J- pecially in very hot seasons. More rarely the short- 



winged type occurs in a different locality from the long-winged type, 

 and usually in that case in a more northerly locality. We have a 

 good illustration of this latter peculiarity in the case of the Chinch 

 Bug, for a dimorphous short-winged form (Fig. 2.) occurs in Canada* 

 and Dr. Fitch describes it from specimens received from the States, 

 as a variety, under the name of apterus. 



DESTRUCTIVE POWERS OF THE CHINCH BUG. 



Few persons in the more Northern States can form a just concep- 

 tion of the prodigious numbers and redoubtable armies in which this 

 insect is sometimes seen in the South and Southwestern States, 



* Tn Dr. Shimer's Paper the dimensions of the egg, as "determined with fine mathemati- 

 cal instruments," are said to be "0.04 inch long and' 0.01 inch wide," (p. 99.) This is either a 

 elerical or a typographical error for "0.004 inch long and 0.001 inch wide." Otherwise the egg 

 would be nearly one-third as long as the insect itself; and as Dr. Shimer thinks that every fe- 

 male lays about 500 eggs, this would be something like getting a bushel of wheat out of a quart 

 measure. 



