Vol. xxixl ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 233 



ranees of various kinds continually appear. Many of these 

 could be overcome, avoided, or removed by pointing them out 

 and discussing them in a general and impersonal manner. 

 Here the editorial page offers an opportunity and the News 

 will be glad to have suggestions, from those enumerated in 

 the first sentence quoted above from the Quarterly, as to just 

 what some of their problems are so that the editors may 

 discuss them. Many of the editorials which have appeared 

 in this journal have been based on such conscious or uncon- 

 scious criticisms, contained in letters, manuscripts received for 

 publication and other sources. But we should like to have 

 more of them, for the editors of the News do not know all 

 that its readers and contributors know. By such co-operation 

 our editorials can surely be made of greater use and assistance 

 to the progress of entomology. 



Notes and News. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



An Extra Molt in the Nymphal Stages of the Chinch Bug 

 (Hem., Het.). 



In 1875 Riley in his Seventh Missouri Report published an 

 original description of the four nymphal stages of the chinch bug 

 accompanied by figures of the different life history stages. His de- 

 scriptions and figures have been accepted as authentic and have been 

 copied repeatedly by various writers. Professor Forbes improved 

 the original figures immensely by publishing in the Twenty-third 

 Illinois Report, 1905, an excellent colored plate illustrating "The 

 Chinch-bug: five stages of development and the eggs." In the 

 descriptions, however, he stated that "the chinch-bug molts four 

 times after hatching." A careful examination of available literature 

 on the subject failed to bring to light a single exception to the 

 original four-stage notion of Riley. 



In the spring of 1916, I had an opportunity, at the Kansas Experi- 

 ment Station to raise the insect under conditions which permitted 

 close observations and obtained invariably five molts instead of 

 four, as is generally believed. The extra molt or stage exists 

 between either the first and second stages or second and third stages 

 of Riley. The exact sequence of this extra stage is difficult to state 

 because of the inadequacy of the original description. The five 

 nymphal stages, as I found them, are distinct and can be distinguished 



