CHINCH BUG 



191 



Description. The adult moth is brownish yellow, resembling 

 in a general way other cut-worm moths. The caterpillars or larvse 

 vary in color from green to very dark brown or blackish; they 

 almost invariably show characteristic 

 stripes on back and sides. When full 

 grown, they are one and one-fourth 

 inches long. The pupae are of mahog- 

 any color; three-fourths of an inch long. 

 They are found two or three inches in 

 the ground. i 



Control Measures. Some of the 

 following methods are applicable to 

 pastures when attacked, and some to 

 grain : 



Early fall pasturing will starve the 

 second brood. Wild grasses in the 

 vicinity of cultivated crops should 

 be destroyed. Plow stubble early in 

 the fall. Land should not lie in pas- 

 ture for more than three or four years. 

 Since these worms sometimes march to 

 a field in a vast army, furrows can be 

 plowed across this line of march, 

 throwing the furrow away from the 

 crop to be protected. The worms 

 may be killed in the furrows with 

 kerosene or by covering them with 

 straw and burning it. Where prac- 

 ticable, a strip of grain or pasturage 

 across the line of march should be 

 sprayed with a strong solution of 

 Paris green, or, better, with arsenate 

 of lead. 



The Chinch Bug (Blissus leucopterus 

 Say). This vile-smelling bug is well 



knOWn tO mOSt Of OUr farmers and 

 ..... . 



owes its names to its bedbug odor, 

 its name being a corruption of a Spanish word meaning bed- 

 bug. The adult is one-fifth of an inch long. It has a black 

 body and white wings, each marked with a black triangle on 

 the outer margin. The bases of feelers or antennae and bases 



FlG . 210 ._ The wheat . head army 



^ d > two views of eggs, enlarged; the 

 male moth. (After Riley.) 



