THE TRUE BUGS 



119 



various flowers and is sometimes an enemy of the sugar beet, but 

 in the South it is best known for causing the cotton squares to drop 

 and producing black spots and distortions of the bolls. It is dark 



FlG. 1 60. A stilt-bug (Jalysus spinosus Say). (Enlarged) 

 (After Lugger) 



brown, with a narrow yellow border, the prothorax being yellow and 

 red with two black spots. Nearly related is the red-bug family (Pyr- 

 rhocoridae\ named after the red-bug, or cotton-stainer (Dysdercus 



FIG. 161. The chinch-bug. (Much enlarged) 



Adult at left ; a, b, eggs ; c, newly hatched nymph ; d, its tarsus ; e, f, g, second, third, and 



fourth stages of nymph ; /z, leg of adult ; _/, tarsus of same ; i, proboscis, or beak. Hair lines 



indicate natural size. (After Webster and Riley) 



snturellus\ an insect of a reddish color, with pale yellow stripes, 

 with habits very similar to the one last mentioned, staining the cot- 

 ton where it punctures the bolls. Though common, it is by no 

 means a serious pest of cotton, but is often injurious to ripening 



