THE INSECT RECORD FOR I9OI 3^ 



change again to adult flies. There is hut one hrood of the 

 flies each vear. 



The larvae of this insect are small grayish-brown grubs. 

 They are often found in great masses under boards in grass- 

 lands and fence corners. They form the chief food of the 

 robin in early spring. 



The unusual abundance of the SquASH Blg^ was one of the 

 most notable insect developments of 

 the season. In spring, reports of seri- 

 ous damage began to come in from 

 many regions and they continued well / 

 into the summer. Early in the season 



we began observations upon the pest, 

 together with experiments with meth- 

 ods of combating it, and after his arri- 

 val in July, Mr. Conradi, assistant en- 

 tomologist, made an elaborate study ^ b 



of its life history. The results of these ^ig. 2. Squash Bug: ^, male; 

 , . " , . , b, female. Natural size. 



observations and expernnents have 



already been published in Bulletin 89 of this station. 



The extraordinary severity of this squash bug attack is well 

 indicated in the following letter from Mr. Arthur Smith of 

 Piermont, written July 13 : 



\Ye are having a scourge of black squash bugs. I do not know how 

 widespread the pest is, but in this town it is so general that most of the 

 squashes planted and many of the cucumbers have been killed. I can best 

 show the extent of the evil by reporting my own experience. I planted 

 fifteen hills; the plants came up well and I covered them with large screens 

 of netting, as I always have done. I found, however, that the bugs went 

 under the screens and got to the plants even though I had banked up the 

 outside quite carefully. So I took the screens off when the plants were 

 from seven to ten inches high, and depended upon hunting the bugs two or 

 three times a day. I never had any trouble with this method before, but 

 this year it seemed to be of ns) avail. One day, about two weeks ago, I 

 took off 175 bugs from my vines at noon, and I had picked them clear in the 

 morning, too. It seems to me clearly within bounds to say that I picked 

 250 bugs from these few hills that day. 



There were probably twice as many on that day as on any day before 

 or since, but there has been a steady stream of them flowing from some- 

 where. One after another my vines have drooped and died till now there 

 are only four or five left out of the sixty or seventy thrifty plants with 



^ Anasa tristis De Geer. 



