420 



trees, but it has never been reported before to infest furniture. The 

 board in question wasot tulip-tree wood, and plaiidy indicated tbat the 

 beetles and their larv;e had been at^York in it for several, if not many, 

 generations. But it also showed another point, viz, that the working 

 of the inse(;t was exclusively done in the sap wood, and the portion 

 consisting of heart wood had not been touched in the least. This is by 

 no means a new observation (see Ed. Perris's Larves de Coleopteres, 

 p. 24(5), but to our knowledge no one in this country has ever drawn 

 attention t;) the rule that, for furniture of all kinds, only the heart wood 

 should be used, never the sap wood, asaprotection against the attacks 

 of ptiuid beetles, including our powder post beetles (genus Lyctus). — 

 E. A. S. 



■JHE HOME OF THE CHINCH BITG. 



m a recent article in Insect Life (vol. Yii, pp. 232-234), Mr. Marlatt 

 states that the normal hibernating place of this insect is in the dense 

 stools, or root-stocks, of certain wild grasses, and concludes that this 

 hibernating habit "is the normal and ancient one of the species, the 

 natural food-plant of which, before the advent of settlement and the 

 growth of the cereals, must have been some of our native grasses," In 

 this Mr. Marlatt is unquestionably correct, and 1 merely wish to point 

 out that this habit of the chinch bug can still be studied to-day in the 

 original and ancient habitat of the insect. 



The unique appearance of the full-grown chincb bug, with its white 

 wings and chalky white pubescence,* forcibly indicates that the insect 

 is either a psammophilous or maritime species; and that it originally 

 belonged to the latter class of insects is, in my opinion, fully borne out 

 by its geographical distribution. It is abundant on the sandy dunes 

 along the Atlantic Ocean, where I have traced it from Cape Florida to 

 Atlantic rit3', ^' J-r ^^^^ I have not the slightest doubt that it occurs 

 along the coast much farther north. In Mr. Ashmead's and my own 

 experience it is never found inland in Florida, though it abounds on the 

 coast. 



It is well known that even now the chmch bug does not occur west 

 of the Rocky Mountains until we come to the Pacific Coast, and the 

 meager records from California show that it is a strictly maritime 

 species there, never having been found inlaiul. Mr. Koebele had no 

 trouble in finding it in large numbers on the shore near Alained,a (see 

 Insect Life, vol. i, p. 20), and if proper search be made it Mill no 

 doubt be found on any point of the California coast. Farther south. 

 Professor Uhler records it (Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci, (2), vol. iv, p. 240) 

 from Lower Purissima, which is on the east coast of Lower California. 

 Of the localities in Guatemala recorded by Mr. Distant in Biologia 



* The color of the specimeus figured iu the Kenort of the Coniuiissioner of Agricul- 

 ture for 1887 (PI. I, tigs. 4 to 7), is altogetber too dark, they liaving hcen drawu from 

 alcoholic specimens. Fresh, living specimens, except snch as have been exposed to 

 prolonged raiuj' m eather, more or less closely resemble m coloration the specimens 

 represented at figure 8. 



