196 



that asparagus plants have been killed by it, and that considerable 

 damage was done to the wheat crop in one field. We have also taken 

 the adults on rye, red clover, broom-corn, oats, thistle, grasses, and 

 flowers; and they have been reported to eat tomatoes, red raspberries, 

 peaches, mullein, and Thcrmopsis. 



The adults hibernate, and have been taken by us from February 20 

 to December 20, most abundantly in spring and in July, August, and 

 September. The nymphs we have taken during the summer with the 

 adults. Eggs supposed to ho of this species were found on corn as 

 late as August 13. 



The species is common in the United States cast of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. It closely resembles the two other species of this genus, but the 

 shoulders are more or less acute, the head is not notched, and the male 

 has a round black spot on the last segment beneath, the female being 

 unmarked. In color it is light brownish, dotted with darker punctures. 

 All three are of about the same size, half an inch long and a fourth of an 

 inch wide, broad and flattened, with large central triangular scutellar 

 plate. 



Thyanta custator Fabr. 



This insect is not very common in Illinois. It resembles the preced- 

 ing species but is smaller, with rounded shoulders. In color it varies 

 from brownish, with a paler median streak, to grass-green with a red 

 stripe across the thorax from shoulder to shoulder. We have found it 

 several times on corn, in one case sucking the sap from a leaf; also on 

 wheat, grasses, and weeds. Chittenden reports it as injuring as{)aragus 

 in South Carolina. We have taken it from April 20 to December 10. 



It is widely distributed over the 

 country, but more commonly to 

 the south and west. 



The Harlequin Cabbage-bug. 



Murganiia histrionica Hahn. 



This well-known enemy (Fig. 

 107) of cabbage and other crucif- 

 erous plants in southern Illinois 

 and the South at large has been 

 known to feed on a variety of 

 other plants when its normal food 

 became exhausted. Corn has been 

 thus infested in Delaware, Ken- 

 tucky, and Virginia. In the latter state it was said to have injured 

 shoots of late corn, and was also present in large numliors about the 

 young silk. It is rarely seen north of southern Illinois. 



Fio. 197. The Harlequin Cabbage-bug, Mur- 

 qantia hislrionica: a and 6, young, enlarged as 

 indicated; c, eggs, natural size; d and e, same, 

 enlarged, fn^m side and above; f and a, adults, 

 natural size, with wings closed and open. (How- 

 ard, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



