CORIST^. 



543 



long as the body, and slightly clayate. Lygceus turdcus Fabr. 

 is a typical form. Pyrrliocoris apterus Linn, is usually apter- 

 ous ; occasionally specimens are found with wings. It inhabits 

 Europe. 



The Chinch bug, BhyparocJiromus leiicopterus Say (Fig. 547) 

 is a great enemy of our wheat crops, and, as its specific name 

 indicates, it may be known by the white fore wings, contrasting 

 well with a black spot on the middle of the edge of the wing. 

 It is about three-twentieths of an inch in length. Harris also 

 states that "the young and wingless individuals are at first 

 bright red, changing with age to brown and black, and are 

 always marked with a white band across the back." Shimer 

 says the female is "occupied about twenty days in laying her 

 eggs, about 500 in number. The larva hatches in fifteen days 

 and there are two broods in a season, the first brood maturing, 

 in Illinois, from the middle of July to the middle of August, 

 and the second late in autumn." According to Harris, the 

 "eggs of the chinch bug are laid in the ground, in which 

 the young have been found, in great abundance, at the depth 

 of an inch or more. 

 They make their 

 appearance on 

 wheat about the 

 middle of June, 

 and may be seen 

 in their various 

 stages of growth 

 on all kinds of 

 grain, on corn, 

 and on herds- 1 



grass, during the ^'S- 547. 



whole summer. Some of them continue alive through the win- 

 ter in their places of concealment." They also attack every 

 description of garden vegetables, attacking principally "the 

 buds, terminal shoots, and most succulent growing parts of 

 these and other herbaceous plants, puncturing them with their 

 beaks, drawing off the sap, and from the eflects subsequently 

 visible, apparently poisoning the part attacked." This species 

 is widely diflused. I have taken it frequentl}^ in Maine, and 



Fig. 548. 



