168 INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE 



long ago suggested by Mr. Glover, in his report above mentioned, the 

 bugs may be attracted to small heaps of sugar cane trash, with which 

 Paris green or some other poison should be mixed ; or the bugs, when 

 collected upon piles of cotton seed in winter, may be destroyed by 

 drenching them with boiling-hot water. The experience of several cot- 

 ton-planters with this last method has shown it to be practicable, but 

 to be effective it must be thoroughly carried out. As the eggs cannot 

 all be reached and destroyed by the hot water, the operation needs to 

 be repeated several times at such frequent intervals that the bugs are 

 not allowed to reach maturity and deposit fresh eggs. 



In the orange grove effective traps may be made with refuse oranges, 

 orange peel, &c., and the bugs, when thus collected, may be destroyed 

 with the kerosene washes used for Scale-insects. The kerosene solu- 

 tions will also be more effective than hot water in reaching and killing 

 the eggs. 



The Bed Bug can never become permanently attached as an enemy 

 to the orange tree, since the fruit which alone supplies it with food 

 lasts only a few weeks, and during the balance of the year the insect 

 must seek its subsistence elsewhere. It is therefore an enemy to be 

 dreaded only in the vicinity of cotton fields and gin houses, in districts 

 where cotton is largely planted, or lastly, and with less probability, in 

 case thickets containing numerous wild Malvaceous plants furnish the 

 bugs with a supply of food during the months when the Orange is not 

 in fruit. 



In South Florida, at least, the planting of cotton in the vicinity of 

 orange groves will necessarily be abandoned. Throughout the orange 

 district the acreage planted in cotton has never been large, and it is 

 for many reasons likely to diminish rather than to increase. With the 

 abandonment of cotton planting, the Red Bug may be expected to dis- 

 appear from this region. 



THE LEAF FOOTED BUG. 



(Leptoglossus pliyllopus Linn.) 

 [Fig- 78.] 



This is a chocolate-brown bug, three quarters of an inch in length. 

 It has the shanks of the hind legs very broadly flattened, and the edges 

 jagged, resembling a tattered leaf fragment; hence its popular name. 

 The markings, a white bar across the folded wings, and a small spot of 

 the same color on each of the leaf- shaped shanks, are very character- 

 istic, and render this species easily distinguishable among other bugs 

 of the same family. The young bugs, with undeveloped wings, show 

 the brighter red color of the body, and do not acquire the peculiar flat- 

 tened hind shanks until nearly adult. 



The eggs are golden brown in color, and are laid in a single row 01 

 chain, along a stein or tbe leaf rib of a plant. They are cylindrical. 



