I 



235 



also found it upon the leaves of Guava which were infested by a Mealy 

 Bug, but was unable to determine whether the Red Bugs were feeding 

 upon the leaves of the i)lant or upon the sweet excretion of the Mealy 

 Bug. According to the Rev. W. F. Nigels, of Dunedin, Fla., it is also 

 found on what is there termed the " Spanish Cocklebur," and upon the 

 ''Poisonous Nightshade;" but this statement has not been confirmed 

 by other observers.* 



HABITS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Egg. — We do not possess authoritative specimens of the egg of 

 this insect to figure and describe, and this is particularly unfortunate, 

 as published accounts of the ^gg and method of oviposition do not 

 agree. Glover says : 



The eggs, to the uuraber of twenty or thirty, are deposited ou the leaves or stalks 

 of the cotton-plant (Gossi/jnum). 



Professor Comstock, in his article previously mentioned, gives the 

 following paragraph to the eggs : 



The eggs of the cotton-stainer were sent to the Department in April by Mr. H. S. 

 Williams, of Rock Ledge, Fla. They were laid in a group of twenty-one, upon the 

 iinderside of an orange leaf. They were amber-colored and oval in shape. The 

 young bugs made their exit through nearly circular holes on the upper side, near one 

 end. The eggs appear smooth and glistening to the naked eye, but an examination 

 with a lens shows them to be densely covered with hexagonal impressions. 



Mr. Hubbard quotes Professor Comstock's statement, but is of the 

 opinion that the eggs are not normally deposited upon leaves. " In 

 winter at least," he says, " and around gin -houses, the eggs are dropped 

 loosely in the sand, and among the heaps of cotton-seed upon which 

 the bugs are feeding." Mr. Schwarz, who observed this insect in the 

 Bahamas in the winter of 1878-'79, did not find the eggs, although, had 

 they been laid upon tbe leaves of the cotton trees, they could hardly 

 have failed to attract his notice, owing to the enormous abundance of 

 the insect in all other stages. He says (Report upon Cotton Insects, 

 1879, p. 348) : 



According to the opinion of the natives, the eggs of the cotton bug are deposited 

 in the cracks of the rock. J myself found a number of eggs on the leaf of a j)]ant 

 growing under a cotton tree, but failed to rear the insect, and am therefore not sure 

 that said eggs are really those of the cotton bug. 



Mr, Schwarz further says in conversation that both young and old 

 bugs were swarming in and out of the crevices in the rocks and that 

 the supposition of the natives above mentioned is probably correct. 



There is no soil proper at these places, the vegetation apparently 

 growing out of the coral rock. 



It will therefore be seen that the statements of Glover and Comstock 

 are open to doubt in view of the positive observations of Hubbard and 



" Mr. Nigels has since sent us specimens of the "Spanish Cocklebur," which proves 

 to be Urena lobata, while he writes that the " Nightshade" which he mentions is 

 Holanuiu nUjrtim. 



