THE GRASS THRIPS. 



Anai:)hotlirips striata (Osb.). 



H. T. FERNALD, PH. D. AND W. E. HINDS, B. S. 



The grass thrips is so small an insect that it is generally overlooked 

 by the farmer. Nevertheless it does much damage to the grass crop 

 in Massachusetts, sucking the juices from the stalks and causing 

 the trouble commonly known as " silver top." 



Studies upon this insect, the damage it causes, and the best 

 methods for controlling it, have been carried on for some time at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College by Mr. W. E. Hinds, B. S., the 

 scientific and practical results of which have already been published. 

 To present that portion of these results which is of practical value 

 to the agricultural interests of the State, in a form available for 

 direct use is the object of this Bulletin. 



HISTORY. 



"In 1875, Prof. J. 11. Comstock, in his ' Syllabus of a Course of 

 Lectures,' mentioned a species of thrips which was doing very great 

 damage to timothy and June grass by working in the upper joints. 

 To this insect, of which he had seen onl}' the larvpe at that time, he 

 gSiS'Q, i\x^ xi?ixae Limothrips iwaphacpis ; but he published no descrip- 

 tion of it previous to the appearance of his ' Introduction to I>nto- 

 mology,' in 1888. 



" Five years before this latter date, Prof. Herbert Osborn pub- 

 lished, in the ' Canadian Entomologist ', Vol. XV., page 155, the 

 description of a species of thrips, under the name of Thnps striata. 

 The description was made from a single specimen, and the food 

 plant was unknown to Prof. Osborn ; but tlie published description 

 agreed so closely with the ' grass thrips ' that the two were sus- 



