80 



found on the petiole of a dead leaf, so loosely placed among the 

 hairs that it fell off on handling the plant. This egg was unmis- 

 takably that of Lygus, as was shown by comparison with those ob- 

 tained from the female by dissection. It was slender, cylindrical, 

 slightly curved, round at one end, truncate and compressed at the 

 other, the longer diameter of this truncate end being three times 

 that of the shorter. The angle nearest the concave side of the egg 

 was produced so as to make this outline somewhat sinuate. The 

 egg was sniooth, shining, pale watery yellow, .92 mm. long and 

 .25 mm. in diameter at its widest part. The greatest diameter of 

 the truncate end was .22 mm., and the shortest .077 mm. 



The adults were found coupling in the field April 23, on flowers 

 of the common cowslip {Caltlia palustris), upon which they were now 

 very abundant. They were not noticeably numerous in strawberry 

 fields until late in April, when a few were observed in Union county, 

 seemingly attracted by the opening blossoms. At this time they 

 were also extremely common upon blooming currant bushes at 

 Normal. 



The young of the year first appeared about the middle of April, 

 upon strawberry plants at Anna, and were abundant there by the 

 3d May. At Normal the species was not found in strawberry fields 

 until the 12th May, and these were all adults of the preceding year. 



In pursuance of my recommendation, Mr. F. S. Earle, of Anna, 

 made some field experiments upon this species with pyrethrum, ap- 

 plying it quite thoroughly on one or two of the worst affected areas 

 in his strawberry plantation. The pyrethrum used was purchased in 

 the market, and was understood to have been effective upon other 

 species of insects. It was diluted with from one to three parts of 

 flour and applied with a sulphur bellows, first to about half an acre 

 of Bidwell plants, when they were a little past their fullest bloom, 

 and the application repeated in two or three days over about half the 

 area. In each case enough was used to dust the plant quite thorough- 

 ly. It was also dusted on nearly an acre of Duchess plants, after 

 the bloom had mostly fallen. Mr. Earle reported that a day or two 

 after the application, he made as careful an estimate as possible of 

 the number of plant bugs remaining on the rows which had been 

 dusted and on those which had not, and concluded that there were 

 from one-half to one-third less on the dusted rows. As this result 

 hardly seemed to justify the trouble and expense of application, 

 nothing further was attempted. 



I am not able to account for the unsatisfactory results of this ex- 

 periment as compared with laboratory experiments made the preced- 

 ing year at Normal and described in my last year's report, but incline 

 to suspect the quality of the pyrethrum. 



The fact that the adults are very generally 'attracted in great num- 

 bers to turnips, cabbage, mullein, and other succulent plants in fall 

 and spring, makes it possible that the number of the following brood 

 in any limited area might be considerably diminished by bordering 

 the field with a row of some of these plants as an attraction to the 

 adult plant bugs. Those lured in this way might then be destroyed 

 with pyrethrum in spring. 



