240 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



crevices of stone walls and the angles of stone buildings, on the south sides 

 of which they appear, singly and in clusters, every warm day during the 

 season. As soon as the increasing warmth of spring allows, they leave 

 these shelters and seek the trees attacked by them. From the time of their 

 scattering in the spring until the appearance of the first adults after mid- 

 summer they are much less conspicuous, and are not likely to be noticed 

 except upon search directly for them. It is at this time, however, that their 

 eggs are laid, and the numerous young are hatching and beginning their 

 work on the trees. After midsummer their gregarious tendency is again 

 manifested in the flocking of the bugs of all sizes and in great numbers in 

 lines up and down the trunks and branches of the trees. Not infrequently 

 they may be seen crowded in a broad line extending from the ground to the 

 secondary branches, the company including nymphs of all sizes, and fully 

 matured individuals. This habit persists more or less completely until 

 October and November, or until the trees are bare. During the warm days 

 of Indian summer the bugs fly everywhere, flocking to the warm sides of 

 the buildings and entering houses where, though otherwise harmless, they 

 become troublesome through their abundance and through their propensity 

 to fall clumsily into pails of water, crocks of milk and other articles of food 

 left uncovered. 



They are principally found, as stated, u[)on bo.x-elder trees, but obser- 

 vations show them to be much more general in their selection of food plants. 

 They feed also on the ash, and I have observed them in abundance sucking 

 the sap from the Ampelopsis clinging to the south side of a stone building. 

 Into the greenhouse many make their way during the autumnal flight, and 

 such are specially fortunate, for they find there not only the desired shelter, 

 but abundance of food as well. They are not slow to test the qualities of 

 the juices of the plants growing in the house, and we have seen them with 

 beaks inserted in the stems of geraniums, cactuses, lilies, Coleus, Ageratum 

 and other plants. 



Remedial measures. This pest like many suctorial species can be con- 

 trolled only by the employment of contact insecticides such as kerosene 

 emulsion or a soap solution. When abundant at the base of trunks of trees 

 the bugs can be killed with kerosene emulsion or hot water. 



Bibliography 

 1895 Lintner, J. A. Ins. N. Y. loth Rep't. 1894. p. 432-39 



