135 
Although a very few of these insects are devoured ‘by birds, no 
natural enemies are known to have any positive effect upon their 
numbers. There is some evidence, however, that wet seasons are 
injurious to them. 
The general distribution of these plant bugs at all seasons of the 
year makes it impossible to exterminate them or seriously to 
diminish their numbers by artificial means, unless the clearing up 
and burning of rubbish late in autumn might have that effect. 
The attention of the orchardist and gardener whose fruits and vege- 
tables are threatened by this insect, should rather be directed to 
measures for defending directly the crops endangered. ‘The insects 
may be caught easily in cool mornings by beating with an insect 
net the tips of the twigs and leaves of the plants in which they 
usually lie concealed at that time, and may then be readily killed by 
shaking them out into a bucket containing a little kerosene, or a 
film of kerosene on water. ‘They may also be destroyed by sprinkling 
or dusting the foliage with pyrethrum, or spraying it with diluted 
kerosene emulsion. Any and even all these measures of defense may 
be used with great profit whenever the insects are numerous enough 
to threaten any serious damage. 
We need yet to know the precise time and place of oviposition; 
the degree of injury attributable to this insect, the conditions 
under which this injury is peculiarly likely to become serious, especi- 
ally in the strawberry field, and the exact number of broods appear- 
ing in the course of the year. 
Additional experiments with preventive and remedial agents are 
likewise to be desired. 
THe Dusky Puant Bue. 
Dereocoris rapidus, Say. 
Order Hemiprera. Family Capsipm. 
[Plate XIV, Figs. 1 and 2.1 
This insect has not hitherto been suspected of any injury to culti- 
vated vegetation, as far as I can learn, nor has it even been men- 
tioned in the literature of economic entomology. Its occurrence 
everywhere in strawberry fields last spring, with the mischievous 
tarnished plant bug already treated, both in the same ages, stages 
and situations, and both found only on the fruit, left no room for 
doubt that this species was in part responsible for the mischief 
apparent. 
At Anna its numbers were not remarkable, but at Centralia, in 
fields whose appearance gave evidence of damage scarcely inferior 
to that noticed further south, 1 found it hardly less numerous 
than its companion. It is quite as widely distributed as Lygus 
lineolaris, occurring from the Atlantic region to San Francisco ; 
and is less abundant, but still an extremely common insect through- 
out Illinois. 
