﻿30 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



forming their courtships and scattering over cornfields and meadows. 

 Thirdly, during the latter sunny days of Fall, when the mature indi- 

 viduals of the second brood are seeking their winter quarters, and 

 many of them already making love preparatory thereto. 



ITS MIGRATION ON FOOT. 



Although the Chinch Bug is abundantly able to fly, yet as a rule 

 it does not take to wing readily. Indeed, between the periods of flight 

 mentioned above, these insects are, for the most part, unable to fly, 

 for the simple reason that they are in the adolescent growing stages, 

 and have not yet acquired wings; for no insect acquires wings until 

 it has attained the imago or full grown state. Thus in migrating from 

 a field of grain after it has been reduced and exhausted, or in passing 

 from a wheatfield to a cornfield, after the wheat has been cut, these 

 myriad sappers and miners are forced to march on foot, and they often 

 do so in solid columns, inches deep. In such case the few more early 

 matured individuals, which have wings, generally keep with the crowd 

 and show no inclination to use their recently acquired power of flight. 



HEAVY RAINS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE CHINCH BUG. 



"As the Chinch Bug, unlike most other true bugs, deposits its 

 eggs underground, and as the young larva? live there for a consider- 

 able time, it must be manifest that heavy soaking rains will have a 

 tendency to drown them out. The simple fact, long ago observed and 

 recorded by practical men, such as Mr. B. E. Fleharty, of North 

 Prairie, Knox county. 111., that this insect scrupulously avoids wet 

 land, proves that moisture is naturally injurious to its constitution. 

 Hence it was many years ago remarked that very often when spring 

 opens dry, chinch bugs will begin to increase and multiply in an alarm- 

 ing manner ; but that the very first heavy shower checks them up 

 immediately, and repeated heavy rains put an almost entire stop to 

 their operations. It is very true that nearly all insects will bear im- 

 mersion under water for many hours, and frequently for a whole day, 

 without sufiering death therefrom; for although animation is appar- 

 ently suspended in such cases, they yet, as the phrase is, ' come to life 

 again.' But no insect, except the few that are provided with gills 

 like fishes and extract the air out of the water, instead of breathing 

 it at first hand, can stand a prolonged immersion in water without 

 drowning — and it must be obvious to the meanest capacity that an 

 insect such as the Chinch Bug, whose natural home is the driest soil 

 it can find, will have its health injuriously affected by a prolonged 

 residence in a wet soil. 



