﻿22 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



The above description originally appeared in 1832, in a pamphlet entitled "Descrip- 

 tions of new species of Heterocerous Hemiptera of N. A." 



Length 1§ lines, or three-twentieths of an inch. Bodj^ black, clothed with a very 

 tine orrayish down, not distinctly visible to the naked eye; basal joint of the anfennse* 

 honey yellow; second joint of the same tipt with black ; third and fonrth joints black; 

 beak brown ; wings and wing-cases white ; the latter are black at their insertion, and' 

 have near the middle two short irregular black lines, and a conspicuous black marginal 

 spot; legs dark honey yellow, terminal joint of the feet, and the claws black. — [Dr. 

 Wm. LeBaron in the Prairie Farmer for September, 1850, vol. x, pp. 280, 281, where tho- 

 name of Rhijparochromus devastator is proposed for it. 



Dr. Fitch also enumerates the following varieties of this insect: 



a, immarginatus. Basal margin of the thorax not edged with yellowish. Com- 

 mon. 



b, dimidiatus. Basal half of the thorax deep velvety black, anterior half grayish- 

 Common. 



c, fuhnvenosus. The stripes on the wing covers tawny yellow instead of black. 



rf, albioenosus. Wing covers white, without any black marks except the marginal 

 spot. A male. 



e, apterus. "Wingless and the wing covers much shorter than the abdomen, 

 /, basalis. Basal joint of the antennte dusky and darker than the second. 

 g, nigricornis. Twotirst joints of the antennae blackish. 

 h, jemoratus. Legs pale livid yellow, the thighs tawny red. Common, 

 i, rufipedis. Legs dark tawny red or reddish brown. 



To these varieties, all of which occur with us, I would add one which may be^ 

 known as melanosus, in which the normal white of the wings is quite dusky, and con- 

 tains additional black marks at base and toward tip, ani in which all the members and 

 the body except the rufous hind edge of thorax are jet black. 



PAST HISTORY OF THE CHINCH BUG. 



" The first record we have of the prevalence of the Chinch Bug; 

 was in the old Revolutionary times in North Carolina, where it was 

 confounded with the Hessian Fly, an insect just then imported from 

 Europe into the United States. Ever since those times it has been 

 an epidemic pest, in particular years, in North and South Carolina 

 and in Virginia. The great American entomologist, Thomas Say, in 

 183], when he had been residing in Indiana for six years, was the 

 first to name and describe it scientifically. He states that he *took 

 a single specimen on the Eastern shore of Virginia;' whence we may^ 

 reasonably infer that it was then either unknown or very rare in Indi- 

 ana, and probably also in other Western States." 



PAST HISTORY OF THE CHINCH BUCi IN MISSOURI. 



In the Appendix will be found records of this insect as far back 

 as 1S36 in two counties in Missouri. W. D. Palson, of Southwest 

 City, McDonald county, writes: "I have been here ever since 1836,. 

 and have seen the bugs ever since I could recollect, but never knew 

 what they were until 1873." D. F. Dyer, of Warrenton, Warren county., 

 also speaks of their appearance during the same year. No very serious 

 damage was however done at this time by the insect, and not until 

 1844 are any complaints made. From this time it gradually increased 

 in numbers, and during the summers of 1854, 55, 56, 57 and 59 did much 



