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eggs and dies. It is asserted as a fact that the beaks of the bugs 
are poisonous to the plants on which they feed. I have not found 
this to be so. I have been unable to discover any other injury 
than the same mechanical injury that would result from any pune- 
ture, if attended with the same depletion of sap. 
This bug is very quick in its motions. You may approach a plant 
on which dozens of them are feeding; as soon as they discover your 
approach, they all dodge around quickly to the opposite side of the 
plant, out of your sight; if you disturb them, they either fly away, 
(they are brisk flyers, and are éalled flies by many), or drop to the 
ground. Harly in the sprivg, they are dormant on cool mornings, 
and are easily picked off or shaken down and destroyed.” 
Prof. Riley remarks in his Second Entomological Report: ‘Quite 
early last spring, while entomologizing in Southern Illinois, I spent 
a day with Mr. A. J. Ayres, of Villa Ridge, and was surprised to 
learn that he had become quite discouraged in his efforts to grow 
young pear trees, on account of the injuries of a certain bug which 
upon examination I found to be the ‘Tarnished Plant-bug.’” In the 
article in the “Entomologist and Botanist” to which I have referred 
on a previous page, he further says: ‘‘This insect has been very 
injurious the present year. Mr. J. P. Jones, of Keytesville, Chari- 
ton county, Mo., complained bitterly to us this spring of its injuries 
to pear and apple trees in his section; Mr. D. B. Wier, of Lacon, 
Ill., considers that it has damaged his crops to the amount of 
$1,000; and the ad interim committee which lately visited his 
orchards, report but little fruit on the pear trees on account of its 
having poisoned and killed the blossom buds. No doubt the extreme 
dry weather has had much to do with the increase of these pests.” 
The apple, pear, cherry, plum and quince, are among the fruit 
trees reported as especially subject to its attacks; and Prof. Riley 
has also noted it as an enemy of the grape, which it injures much 
as it does the twigs of trees. 
In the Strawberry Field. 
Beyond a conjecture of Prof. Riley, that an injury to strawberry 
leaves referred to him bya correspondent, was due to the punctures 
of this insect,* and a general statement by Mr. Townend Glover, 
that this species is injurious to that plant, evidently based upon the 
above surmise of Mr.. Riley,t I do not know that it has ever been 
suspected of an attack upon the strawberry until the present year. 
My own attention was first called to the matter by a letter from 
Messrs. .EHarle & Sons, of Cobden, Ill., who are among the heaviest 
strawberry growers in the country. 
Under date of May 14, Mr. F. 8S. Earle wrote me from Anna, 
Illinois: ‘‘We are in trouble again., This time it is a green ‘bug’ 
that is sucking the juice out of the green berries, causing them to 
wither and partially dry up—‘button’ it is called by strawberry 
growers. This ‘buttoning’ has been known for a long time, and it 
* American Entomologist, Vol. I (1869), p. 227. 
t Report of the U. 8, Department of Agriculture for 1875, p. 126. 
