PACKARD.] THE SQUASH-BUG. 771 



Description of Melanosphora diabroficw Sbimer. — Pitch black. Eyes and proboscis light 

 brown. Halters pale brownish. A cresceutic line on each side of the face bordering 

 the eye, almost meetictr in the medial line, silvery-gray. Anterior portion and sides 

 of the prothoras in some lights give the same lustrous gray reflections as the face; iu 

 others, blackish. Body moderately clothed with stiff black spines. Wings hyaline, 

 iridescent, with a smoky yellowish shade toward the base. Expanse of wings, 0.Q4 of 

 an inch ; width of wing, 0.06 of an inch ; length of body, 0.13-0.15 of an inch ; described 

 from five dry specimens. — (Shimer.) 



Dr. Shimer has also fouud a small red mite 

 attached to the posterior end of the body of 

 the beetle, which is very auuoyiug to its host. 



Remedies. — Covering the vines with cotton 

 or a high frame covered with muslin or mi.lli- 

 net is the only sure preventive, while pow- 

 dered charcoal, hellebore, or lime may be 

 sprinkled on the leaves. Mr. Grep-ory, says 

 the American Agriculturist, "relies upon 

 l^laster or oyster-shell lime, which may be 

 shaken from a small sieve while the leaves 

 are wet with dew or rain; to be applied as '^- s^lf^lBeetlT^*" ""^ ^^^ 

 soon as the plants are up. He objects to the ^ 



use of air-slacked stone-lime as it is apt to be too caustic and injures 

 the plant." 



The Squash-Bug, Coreus tristis De Geer (Fig. 39). — Sucking the sap of the stems; 

 large black bugs, often surrounding in large numbers the stems of squash-vines in 

 August. 



While the squash-beetle is a coleopterous insect, the large black bug 

 which is so abundant and destructive to the squash is a 

 hemipterous insect, not having free-biting jaws as in the 

 beetles, but a long, slender, sharp beak, lying, when at rest, 

 on the breast, which it thrusts into the stem or leaf-stalks 

 of its food-plant. 



I extract the following account of it from the " Guide to 

 the Study of Insects." The squash-bug is very destructive 

 to squash- vines, collecting in great numbers around the 

 stem near the ground and sucking the sap with its stout fig. 39.-sqna8h. 

 beak. It is a large, blackish-brown insect, six-tenths of Bug, nat. size, 

 an inch long, and dirty yellowish beneath. It hibernates in the adult 

 condition, leaving the plants in October. About the last of June the 

 sexes meet, and the females "lay their eggs in little patches, fastening 

 them with a gummy substance to the under side of the leaves. The eggs 

 are round and flattened on two sides and are soon hatched. The young 

 bugs are proportionally shorter and more rounded than the perfect 

 insects, are of a pale ash color, and liave quite large antennaj, the joints 

 of which are somewhat flattened. As they grow older and increase in 

 size, after molting their skins a few times, they become more oval in 

 form, and the under side of their bodies gradually acquires a dull ocher- 

 yellow color." (Harris's Treatise). The youngattack the leaves, causing 

 them to wither. Successive broods are said to appear during the sum- 

 mer. The odor of this bug is very offensive. Professor Verriel has found, 

 with the assistance of Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, that the 

 odor of this and other hemipterous insects bears the most resemblance 

 to that of the formate of amylic ether. It is probable that this substance 

 is its most essential and active ingredient. 



Remedies. — This insect is so conspicuous that it can readily be con- 

 trolled by hand-picking, especially when fully grown. 



