43) 
Mr. Webster reports seeing a larva of Chrysopa feeding on young 
chinch-bugs in a field of corn at Normal, on the 30th of July, and 
another was detected in the act on the 5th of August, in some corn 
which had been transplanted to the laboratory for experiment. 
Eges of this insect were also noticed in a field infested by the 
chinch-bug, but neither bugs nor eggs were very numerous. 
’ The following additional insect enemies are mentioned by Prof. 
Riley, ia his seventh report as State Entomologist of Missouri: 
“The insidious flower-bug (Anthocoris insidiosus, Say) which is so 
often found preying on the leaf-inhabiting form of the grape Phyl- 
loxera, and which is not unfrequently mistaken for the chinch-bug, 
is quite commonly found in connection with this last, and in all 
probability preys upon it. The many-banded robber (Harpactor 
-cinctus, Fabr.,) also preys upon the chinch-bug. It is quite frequently 
met with, and I have detected it in the act.” 
Concerning these, Prof. Thomas says, in the Chinch-bug Bulletin, 
issued by the Department of the Interior, in 179: ‘‘The most 
efficient of these aids appears to be the Harpactor cinctus, or banded- 
bug. I received, in 1878, notice from points in the Northwest 
that it was doing much service in destroying chinch-bugs, but it 
does not develop in sufficient numbers to make any serious impres- 
sion on them in the years when they are abundant.” 
In a field of corn near Normal, I noticed in July on the groand 
about the stalks and occasionally crawling over the lower parts of 
these, numerous specimens of an extremely abundant, small, preda- 
ceous beetle, (Agonoderus comma), which was at that time evidently 
but just emerging as a perfect insect. As the lower parts of these 
stalks were likewise covered more or less completely with young 
chinch-bugs in stages preceding the third molt, and as the beetles 
were often seen wandering about, it seemed probable that the latter were 
feeding, at least in part, upon the bugs. Ten specimens were dis- 
sected from this field, in four of which fragments of voung chinch- 
bugs were detected, amounting to fully one-fifth of the food of the 
entire number. One had eaten an ant, of a species likewise very 
abundant in the same situation. In one, a trace of some insect 
larva was discovered, while the entire remainder of their food, 
amounting to about half the whole, consisted of fragments of vege- 
tation, the source of which could not positively be determined. It 
had every appearance, however, of having been partly derived 
from the roots of the corn. This abundant predaceous beetle must 
therefore be added to the list of the active enemies of [the chinch- 
bug. In the field in question, which was not very seriously infested, 
the number destroyed by them must have been sufficient to diminish 
appreciably the following brood. 
The only mention of ants, in this connection, which I have seen, 
is in the paper of Prof. Riley, already cited, where he says that 
two correspondents have reported to him that this insect destroys the 
eggs of chinch-bugs. This statement, however, lacks verification by 
dissection. The little ant (Lasius flavus) mentioned above, was 
found by me very common in all fields infested by the chinch-bug, 
-and is, in fact, excessively abundant everywhere. In many fields of 
sorghum and broom-corn, their extraordinary numbers had attracted 
