THE TARNISHED PLANT-BUG 253 



Remedy. The eggs are laid late in autumn, but do not hatch 

 till the following summer, so that cutting out and burning the 

 wounded portions at the annual pruning is the only remedy 

 necessary. As the young insects are carnivorous, feeding largely 

 on plant lice, the benefit which they render the fruit-grower 

 probably exceeds the injury, unless at times when they are 

 unusually abundant. 



THE TARNISHED PLANT-BUG (Fig. 32) 

 Lygus pratensis, Linn. Order Hemiptera: Family Capsidee 



Weed, Ins. and Insecticides. 93. 



Webster, Bull. O. Exp. Sta. 45:213. 

 Lygus lineolaris (P. Beauv.). 



Forbes, 111. Rep. 13:115 



Saunders, Ins. Inj. Frts. 147. 

 Capsus oblineatus, Say. 



Riley, Amer. Ent. 2:291. 



This species is one of the true bugs, a class of insects 

 destitute of jaws, but provided with a sucking beak for draw- 

 ing the juices from plants. It is very abundant in nearly all 

 parts of the United States, subsisting upon 

 a great variety of plants. Although not re- 

 garded as specially injurious in a general way, 

 it sometimes proves very destructive, espe- 

 cially to strawberries, attacking the young fruit, 

 and causing an imperfect development, in the 

 form of "nubbins" or "buttons." It also at- 

 tacks young blackberries, and perhaps rasp- 

 berries, in a similar way, in addition to feed- 

 ing on other tender parts of the plant. Fig. 32. Tarnished 



The following brief account is taken from plant-bug, 

 the summary of Forbes's excellent article on Lygus pratensis. 

 this species: 



" The old bugs winter under rubbish upon the ground, emerge 

 early in spring, cluster upon the unfolding buds of fruit trees, 

 the fresh foliage of strawberries and other early vegetation, and 

 there lay their eggs, which hatch, and old and young together 



