194 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE CHINCH BUG. 



(Micropus leucopterus, Say.) 



[ OOKOLUnm FEOM KCMBEB KINK. ] 



Cannibal Foes of the Chinch Bng. 



As long ago as 1861, the Senior Editor, in his 

 Essay upon the Injurious Insects of Illinois, 

 publislied facts which tended to show tliat four 

 distinct species of Ladybirds preyed upon the 

 Chinch Bug.* The first of these four is the 

 Spotted Ladybird {Hijipodamia maculata, 

 DeGeer, Fig. 135), which also preys upon a 

 great variety of other insects, attacking both the 

 [Fig. 135.] eggs of the Colorado [Pi^. ,3,.,^ 



Potato Bug and those 



of certain Bark lice ; 



and which is further -f 



remarkable for being , 



Hipp, maculata. Ol\B Of the f3W IHSeCtS '"»«■ '"""J"- 



Colors, Pink and f0""fl ^oth iu EurOpC '^"j™ ' ^.'f J^''™^ 



'''"'''• and in North America. ^^'''^■ 

 The second is the Trim Ladybird {Coccinella 

 munda, Say, Fig. 13G), which is distinguishable 

 at once from a great variety of its bi-ethren by 

 having no black spots upon its i-ed wing-cases. 

 The other two are much smaller insects, belong- 

 ing to a genus (Scymnus) of Ladybirds, most 

 of the species of which are quite small and of 

 obscure brown colors, and hard to be distin- 

 guished by the popular eye from other beetles, 

 the structure of which is very diflercnt, and 

 which therefore belong to very diflerent groups 

 and have very diflerent habits. Of these last 

 we present no ligures ; as the scientific reader 

 knows perfectly well by what characters they 

 can be recognized, and no mere flgures would 

 enable the ])opuLar reader to recognize them at 

 a glance , 



In the autumn of ISOi Dr. Shimer ascertained, 

 apparently by actual observation, that the very 

 same Ladybird which has been sketched .above 

 (Fig. 135) preys extensively upon the Chinch 

 Bug. In a particular field of corn, which had 

 been sown thick for fodder, and which was 

 swanning with Chinch Bugs, he found, .as he 

 says, that this Ladybird " could be counted by 

 hundreds upon every square yard of ground 

 after shaking the corn ; but the Chinch Bugs 

 were so numerous, that these hosts of enemies 

 made very little perceptible impression among 

 them."' On the general subject of Ladybirds 

 and their lizard-like larva;, we must refer the 

 reader to what we have said in our article on 

 Potato Bugs (No. 3, p. 46), whei-e flgures of 

 several species in their difl"ercnt stages will be 

 found. 



* See Tram. III. St. Agile. Society, IV, iip. 341;-!). 



In the same autumn the same observer made 

 the additional and entirely original discovei'y, 

 that in the very same field of fodder-corn the 

 Chinch Bugs were preyed upon by the larva of 

 a very common species of Lacewing Fly — the 

 Weeping Lacewing {Chrysopa plorabunda, 

 Fitch.)* With the exception of the Eyed Lace- 

 wing (C7i?-. oculata. Say), and perhaps the Red- 

 lipped Lacewing {Chr. rujflabris, Burm.), this 

 is our commonest species in Illinois ; and Dr. 

 Fitch says that he met with it in abundance in 

 the very months, September and October, in 

 which Dr. Shimer noticed it iu such profusion 

 in a corn-field, and not only in his own State, 

 New York, but also in the State of Illinois. All 

 the Lacewing Flics, however, resemble one 

 another so closely both in size, shape and color, 

 that the ordinary observer would suppose them 

 all to belong to the same species; and the same 

 may be said of their larvffi. Hence we shall 

 merely repeat here from page 33 the flgures 

 there given of one of them, where a represents 

 Fife'. i:!7.] 



the eggs, b the larva with its long sickle-shaped 

 jaws, by which it may be readily distinguished 

 from all the Ladybird larva;, c the ridiculously 

 small cocoon, and d the enormous fly that comes 

 out of this very small cocoon, as the Bottle- 



» Di- Shiinpi- has ve-tle-scviliprt plorabunda. as a new species 



^.":: 



111- ,;;,,..-,,„,s,s,lillVi-s fnini llarrisii. Kiteh, ' 

 !:.. k Hi iMiivs," (p.ai2). Now, Harriaii is ' 

 III li\ I iiili to have the nervures 



111 ::n\ 1 1 ai us of dark gi-cen or black at their 

 1 Rep . I, p. 90) . Uow then is it possible for 

 :o ilifler from Harrisii by having no black ner- 

 i neither species has black nervures? 



