30 First Report on Ecoiioniic Zoology. 



■or Gopher. Tliis latter animal is most harmful in America, but the 

 mole is not with us and its destruction should not be advocated. If 

 they are very numerous, as on the land of the Board's correspondent 

 they should be trapped alive and spread over the country. 



SUB-GEOUP B. ANIMALS WHICH CAUSE INJUKY AND 

 DISEASE TO MAN'S VEGETABLE PLANTATIONS. 



Section II. 

 Animals Injurious to Horticulture. 



Land Bugs on Chrysanthemums. 



{Lygus 'praUnsis, Fabr.) 



The insects sent to the Board of Agriculture by a correspondent 

 from South Norwood, S.E., are Hemiptera-Heteroptera (Bugs) and 

 belong to the species known as Lygus pratensis, the L. campestris of 

 Linnaeus. This is a very common and widely distributed British 

 species and is sometimes harmful to various garden plants. There is, 

 however, no record of their attacking chrysanthemums. 



Several other species of land bugs are injurious to garden plants, 

 including the so-called potato bugs, Phytocoris pahulinus, L. and 

 Lygus contaminatus, Eallen. 



These bugs injure the plants by sucking out the juices, puncturing 

 stem, leaf and blossom. 



The life-history of Lygus pratensis is not known, but it may be 

 mentioned that the eggs are usually laid on the plants upon which 

 the insects feed — these eggs give rise to the larval or louse stage — 

 a creature much like the adult, but wingless ; the next stage, the 

 pupal stage, differs in having two bud-like processes on each side of 

 the body, the wing Ijuds. 



These plant bugs are injurious in all three stages. Some winter 

 as eggs, others hibernate amongst rubbish in hedgerows, etc. 



Treatment. 



The only remedies of any avail against these creatures are 

 (i) collecting them by jarring the plants over tarred boards held on 

 each side and (ii) treatment by washing. 



