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young occur in our collections, and we have, therefore, no evidence 
of more than a single brood. That all are full-grown by autumn is 
certain, and in this condition they hibernate. 
INJURIES. 
To the Strawberry. 
The negro bug appears on the strawberry in April, choosing the 
blossoms as its favorite point of attack. Mr. Ayers, of Villa Ridge, 
reported to Dr. Le Baron that he had counted from ten to fifteen “of 
them in a single blossom, puncturing the plants with their beaks, 
and causing them to wilt and perish. Prof. Riley attributes to it 
the same noxious effect on flower and fruit, but says that it does 
the mischief by puncturing the stem. Concerning the amount of 
damage which this insect may do, we have little exact information. 
LG has not been sufficiently common in strawberry fields under my 
own observation to exhibit its powers of mischief. In Canada it 
has been reported as “‘very troublesome.;” im Alton it is said to 
have occurred “in swarms” upon the strawberries, and judging from 
the effects of its assaults on other plants, it seems capable of 
serious annoyance to the strawberry grower. 
To Wheat. 
This species has not heretofore been reported as an enemy to 
wheat, but my suspicions were aroused bv its abundance in fields 
of that grain, at Carbondale, in April, 1£83, where numbers of adults 
were taken in the sweep-net. The freedom of the wheat from weeds, 
made it altogether probable that the negro bugs were living at the 
expense of the growing grain. From a farmer in Montgomery 
county, I received in June some examples of this insect, with the 
information that it was ‘‘literally killing the wheat.” “Ng. day,” he 
says, “in traveling beside a wheat field, I noticed that the road was 
alive with them; and, on getting into the field, I found that four- 
fifths of the wheat was dead. ‘The grain was shriveled, or had been 
killed before the kernel was shaped. I have heard several farmers 
mention the fact that the bugs are in their fields.” 
A few days after, in Perry county, the same species was found 
very abundant in fields of wheat stubble, by an assistant, to whom 
a farmer said that the platform of his reaper had been black with 
them when he cut the grain. These were gathered, after the wheat 
was cut, upon the weeds among the grain, that upon which they 
were most common being apparently the ordinary wild Coreopsis of 
the region (Coreopsis lanceolata), although it was not yet in blossom 
at the time. 
In a recent letter to Mr. A. T. Strange, of Walshville, from whom 
the information quoted above was received, [ expressed some doubt 
whether the injury noticed in heading wheat was really due to this 
insect, and he replied to me, giving the following reasons for 
believing them to be the author of the mischief: ‘I found them 
in a wheat field near my house, in great quantities, over about one 
acre of ground; I saw some of them on the wheat stalks, and in 
