INSECT PESTS AND DISEASES 127 



before they take flight. In the early morning hours 

 they can be most easily caught, being then somewhat 

 sluggish. One thing is certain, it is a pest that cannot 

 be trifled with, or it will do a vast amount of harm, 

 resulting in complete deformity of the plant's growth. 



A somewhat similar bug is often around when 

 the flowers are opening, and it leaves its dirty trail 

 wherever it goes, especially so upon white flowers, whose 

 petals sho% black spots where it is present. It, too, 

 must be hunted out and destroyed a by no means 

 simple task for when discovered it usually "plays 

 possum," and, dropping down upon the plant, or hiding 

 in the flower itself, keeps perfectly still, shamming 

 death. 



Among the hosts of insects there is one, at least, 

 to befriend the grower, and would that it came in larger 

 numbers. This is the lady bug or lady bird, and 

 doubtless so familiar to all as to need no description, at 

 least in its adult stage with its shining red and black 

 spotted jacket. Before it reaches this stage of develop- 

 ment, however, it is a friend and feeds freely upon such 

 aphides as it can find upon the plants. In the grub 

 stage it has an elongated, flattish body of a leaden or 

 slaty color, and it crawls about the plant searching 

 for food, and, when finding a colony of a.phides, makes 

 short work of them. It feeds continuously till it 

 changes into a chrysalis, when it remains gummed to 

 the plant until its metamorphosis is completed into a 

 winged adult. 



The Corythuca Gossypi is an insect common in the 

 cotton growing States and a pest to be dreaded by those 

 who grow Chrysanthemums there. Although a few 

 instances have been recorded of its appearance in Xorth- 

 ern greenhouses the visitations so far have been rare. 

 In view of what has happened in the past such a con- 



