THE 



VOL. 1. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., MAY, 1869. 



NO. 



Cljt ^m^rirHit ^ntomolDgist. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



F. STXJIDLE-Sr <fe CO. 



104 OLIVE STKEET, ST. LOUIS. 



EDITORS: 

 BES.J. D. WALSU Rock Island, 111. 



CHAS. V. UILEY, 2130 Clark 



THE CHINCH BUG. 



{Micropiis Icucopterux, Saj'.) 



If wc ask the Western Friiit-<^rower, what 

 particular iusect is the mo.st diflicult for him to 

 loiiibat and the most destructive to his crops, 

 he will i>robably ansAver " The Curculio." If 

 we put the same (juestion to the "Western Grain- 

 grower, lie will infallibly reply "The Chinch 

 Bug.' And he will be in (he right. The 

 AVheat-midge — popularly known iii the "West as 

 the "Weevil"' or the "lied Weevil" — does a 

 considerable amount of damage there, in par- 

 ticular years and in particular localities, by its 

 little legless orange-colored larva sucking away 

 the sap from the growing kernel of the wheat. 

 The Hessian Fly — often called simply "the 

 Fly " — injures the wheat by the maggot that 

 produces it living between the stem and the 

 sheath of the blade, and intercepting the sap 

 before that sap can reach the ear. The Grain 

 Plant-louse, easily distinguished from the above 

 two little pests by its long sprawling legs, has 

 in certain year.s somewhat injured the small 

 grain in the West, by accumulating, first on the 

 gi-owing stem and afterwards on the ear, and 

 abstracting the sap with its long pointed beak. 

 The Joint-worm— which we illustrated in a 

 recent article — may likely enough exist in the 

 West, torming unnatural galls on the stem not 

 far from the ground. There are also in all 

 probiibility several minute Two-winged Flies, 

 the Natural History of which has not yet been 

 fully developed, and which do more or less 

 injury to the growing grain by their larvae 

 breeding in the stem. We are ourselves 

 acquainted with the larva of sonic unknown 



mo'h, which burrows upwards and downwards 

 in the stem of oats and as we suspect of wheat 

 also, causing the ear to become prematurely 

 white and the kernel to be entirely blasted. 

 The White Grub, the Wire-worm, and certain 

 Cut-worms take a certain per centage of the 

 young grain, almost as soon as it peeps out of the 

 ground. But undoubtedly the meanest bug, out 

 of the whole crowd of the multifarious insect- 

 foes of the grain-growing farmer, is the Chinch 

 Bug. He is not satisfied with taking a field here 

 and a field there, and sparing the remainder. 

 But when his time comes — and in mercy to the 

 Western Farmer we arc not cursed every year 

 with this little savage — he sweeps the whole 

 country with the besom of destruction. The 

 Wheat-midge, the Hessian Fly, the Grain Plant- 

 louse and the Joint- worm, destructive as they 

 are to small grain, yet spare our corn. If they 

 take the good white wheaten bread out of our 

 mouths, they yet leave us an ample supply of 

 corn-dodgers. But the Chinch Bug makes a 

 clean sweep, whenever he gets the upper hand 

 of us. He " goes the entire hog." Nothing in 

 the way of grain comes amiss to him. He is not 

 dainty, not he! Wlicnever he gets a chance to 

 spread himself, he first of all at one fell swoop 

 destroys the small grain, and then fastens his 

 li(luorish beak upon the corn and takes that 

 also. 



For two successive years — 18CG and "07 — 

 we were entirely, or almost entirely, exempt 

 from this most pei'uicious insect in the West. 

 In 1864 it had been more destructive than usual ; 

 and again in 1868 it did considerable damage in 

 certain counties in Southern Illinois and espe- 

 cially in South-west Missouri. Hence it is 

 apprehended by many that it is likely to be as 

 destructive as ever in 1869. We propose, in 

 this article, to show upon what contingencies 

 that event depends — under what particular 

 circumstances the insect is likely to be as destruc- 

 tive as ever, and under what other particular 

 circumstances it will be certain to do us no 

 damage of any consequence. Surely, if we 

 could do no more than this, the information 

 would be worth our subscription-money ten 

 times over, to every grain-grower who does not 



