176 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ism. And all this from an author who sees fit 

 to read his entomological brethren a severe lec- 

 ture for " filling their pages with the unreliable 

 and worthless sayings of incorrect observers, 

 chiefly correspondents;"' for "speaking from 

 conjecture and comparisons and hearsay ;'' and 

 for being " all of them one-idea men, who get 

 the BUG so close up to their eyes, that there is 

 danger that it may obscure even the light of the 

 sun!" And who finally, after depreciating the 

 labors of all his predecessors, complacently 

 blows his own trumpet, at the end of his 

 precious jumble of false physiology, illogical 

 inferences, and gratuitous assumption, by as- 

 serting that his Article is " the most complete 

 Natural History of the Chinch Bug upon record." 

 AVe do not now deny, and never have denied, 

 that Dr. Shinier is a good observer; and so long 

 as he confines himself to telling us what he has 

 seen with liis own eyes, we are always glad to 

 hear from him. But it is really too bad to be 

 dosed with gaseous speculations, about " the 

 precipitation of watery vapor in the bronchial 

 tubes " of a Chinch Bug, by a writer who tells 

 us in the same breath, that he "has long ago 

 come to the conclusion, that we have no right 

 to know anything by mere conjecture, unsup- 

 ported by observation."' 



Prophecies Aboat the Chinch Bug. 



One of the most dangerous things for a Natu- 

 ralist to attempt is to prophecy. "VVe have our- 

 selves in bygone years put forth two prophecies 

 as to the future progress of certain insects ; 1st, 

 in the year 18G5, one year after the Colorado 

 Potato Bug had invaded the western limits of 

 Illinois, that it would subsequently sweep west- 

 ward at the rate of some fifty miles a year till it 

 touched the Atlantic Ocean; 2d, in the year 

 18GG, that the Colorado Grasshopper would not 

 progress westward in that manner, but that on 

 the contrary it would never get farther east 

 than the western half of Iowa and of Missouri. 

 We leave others to say how far these prophecies 

 of ours have been verified by subsequent events. 

 Now let us see what success Dr. Shimer has had 

 in prophecying as to the future doings of the 

 Chinch Bug in Illinois. On February lUh, 

 1868, at Freeport in North Illinois, he thus dis- 

 courses before the North Illinois Horticultural 

 Society : 



Even our State Entomologist, Mr. Walsh, believes 

 tiKil Chincli r.ims are manv-broodeJ, and strangely, 

 alhi- llir -iv;ii .piilcmie of 1805, that almost swept the 

 la^l M vij-,. ,,r iiiiin awav, teaches (lecture before the 

 H.ini.ultiiral >,.,icty, Mt". Carroll, Dec. 19, 1807.) that 

 when we liavc a wet spring we will [shall] not have 

 many Chinch bugs, but that whenever we have a dry 

 spring we will [shall] be troubled again with them as 



heretofore. Where is the seed of them? I uebe stake 

 MY REPUTATION AS A NATURALIST On the declaration, 

 that for our region of country it will require many years 

 of warm dry summers and mild or snowy winters for 

 protection , to develop such a numerous host of Chinch 

 Bugs as we had in 1863, '4 and '5. 



Assuming that the above prophecy of Dr. 

 Shiiner's was intended to apply only to the State 

 of Illinois, and not to the wliole Western region 

 which is subject to the attacks of the Chinch 

 Bug, let us see how far, in that one single 

 State, his prediction has been verified by facts. 

 Of course, if it was really an Epidemic Disease, 

 like the Cholera, and not merely the direct 

 operation of the wet weather, that caused the 

 great mortality among the Chinch Bugs in 18Go, 

 it is unreasonable to suppose that this Epidemic 

 Disease could only have spread through a single 

 township, or a single county, or any very limited 

 extent of territory. We think, therefore, that we 

 are safe in inferring, that Dr. Shimer intended 

 his observations to apply to a district of land at 

 least as large as the whole State of Illinois. 

 Now, if we search the valuable " Records of the 

 Season" which appeared weekly in the year 

 1868, in the Prairie Farmer, we shall find the 

 following paragraphs, dated from several coun- 

 ties in South Illinois some six months after Dr. 

 Shimer had discoursed as quoted above : 



Clinton Co., Jlh., Aug. 1, 1808— I think I mightsay 

 with safety, that one-tenth of the corn planted in this 

 neighborhood was entirely killed by the Chinch Bugs 

 in ten days aftir win at liarvc~t, at which time we had 

 a good ra'intlial -rcinc! t-. -tnp operations. The ground 

 is now gettiii;: 'i"ii' 'li> '"d i> fi'esh crop of Chinch 

 Bugs an- liatcliiiii; l^.v llir uiyiiad. It does not appear 

 to make aiiv ■lirlrn inr imw wli.thrr it i^ near wheat- 

 stubble oi- not , lor I -aw In-, lav. .11 iir\vl:ni.lju-t. cleared 

 of timlii'i- la-t winliTiluU so mil- iiniii w lim- wheat 

 ever grew) stalks that weiv I.Inh u down, aliiio-t i-ovcrcd, 

 and the ground uikUt tlivm letl with the little pests, 

 scarce able to crawl. Unless we ha-\e a great deal of 

 rain this month and next, I think our corn must be very 

 light. C. T. S. 



Kandolph Co., Ills., Sept. 3, 1868. — On account ot 

 the repeated very dry season and the ravages of Chinch 

 Bugs, corn-raising in this county is nearly abandoned. 

 In addition to the general e.vtreme heat, we have had 

 no rain here so as to wet the ground half an inch dur- 

 ing the months of .June, Julv and August initil August 

 •28th. " W. A. 



Clinton. Co., Jlls., Sept. 19, 1868.— It was quite dry 

 here the last half of July and up to the 20tl) of August. 

 As I expected when I wrote to you last, the bugs sucked 

 our corn very hard, so that a great deal of it will be 

 quite light and chaffy. Had a good rain on Aug. iOth, 

 which cleared the bugs from the corn. C. T. 8. 



Effingham Co., Jlh., Oct. 4, 1868.— We should have 

 had a good crop of corn this year, had it not been for 

 the ravages of that most detestable of all insects , the 

 Chinch Bug, which nas been working on our own corn 

 since the 1st of July. K. G. E. 



The following appeared iu the Western Rural 

 of Aug. 1, 1868, from the pen of a correspondent : 



Effiaqham Co., Ills., July 20, 1868.- Owing to tlie dry 

 we.ither from June 8th till harvest, the Chincli Bug has 

 Injured the wheat crop very much- almost, if not quite 



On July 18, 18C8, Col. Heckcr, of Lebanon, 

 St. Clair Co., Ills., wrote to us as follows: 



