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 np 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 Histoi-y of the Chinch Bng upon record." 

 "VVe do not now deny, and never have denied, 

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

 as he confines himself to telling us what he has 

 seen with his own eyes, we are always glad to 

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

 dosed wilh 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 bj'' observation." 



Prophecies Abont the Chinch Bog. 



One of the most dangerous things for a Natu- 

 ralist to attempt is to prophecy. We have our- 

 selves in bygone years put forth two prophecies 

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

 in the year 1865, 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 

 1866, 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 11th, 

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

 courses before the North Illinois Horticultural 

 Society : 



Even our State Entomologist, Mr. "VValsh, believes 

 that Chinch Bugs are many-brooded, and strangely, 

 after the great epidemic of 1865, that almost swept the 

 last vestige of them away, teaches (lecture before the 

 Horticultural Society, Mt. Carroll, Dec. 19, 1867,) that 

 when we have a wet spring we -vvill [sh.-vU] 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? Iherestake 

 MY REPUTATION AS A NATURALIST On the declaration, 

 that for our region of country it will requii-e 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. 

 Shimer's was intended to apply only to the State 

 of Illinois, and not to the whole Western region 

 which is subject to the attacks of the Chinch 

 Bng, 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 1863, 

 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 mouths after Dr. 

 Shimer had discoursed as quoted above : 



Clinton Co., Ills. , Aug. 1, 1868. — I think I mi»htsay 

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

 neighborhood was entirely killed by the Chinch Bugs 

 in ten days after wheat harvest, at which time we hatl 

 a good rain that seemed to stop operations. The ground 

 is now getting quite dry .and a fresh crop of Chinch 

 Bugs arcliatching by the myriad. It does not appear 

 to make any difference now whether it is near wheat- 

 stubble or liot, for I saw to-day on new land just clewed 

 of timber last winter (full 80 rods from where wheat 

 e\w grew) stalks that were blown down , almost covered, 

 and the ground under them red with the little pests, 

 scarce able to crawl. Unless we have a great deal of 

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

 light. C. T. S. 



Randolph Co., Ills., Sept. 3, 1868.— On account of 

 the repeated very dry season and the ravages of Chinch 

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

 In addition to the general extreme heat, we have had 

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

 ing the months of June, July and August until August 

 28th. W. A. 



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

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

 As I expected whcniwrote to you last, the bugs sucked 

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

 quite light and chafiy. Had a good rain on Aug. 20th, 

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



Effingliam Co.; Ills., 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 lias been working on our own corn 

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



The following appeared in the Western Rural 



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



Effimjliam Co., /ZZ«. , July 20, 1868.- Owing to thedry 

 weather from June 8th till harvest, the Chinch Bug has 

 injured the wheat croi> very much — almost, if not quite 

 one-half. They have destroyed hundreds of acres of 

 corn in this and adjoining counties. W. B. 



On July 18, 1868, Col. Hecker, of Lebanon, 



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



