234 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



ing the past 40 years and now has a distribution as far west 

 as Illinois and Minnesota and south in the Mississippi Valley 

 into Kentucky. 



(2) It is believed to be an introduced species, coming 

 from Europe with timothy hay or other large stemmed grass 

 shipped for forage or packing some time between 1800 and 

 1825. 



(3) It feeds upon cultivated grasses, especially timothy, 

 orchard grass, and meadow fescue, and when abundant must 

 seriously affect the value of the crop. 



(4) It is a dimorphic species, there being two forms of 

 females, a long-winged and a short-winged form, the latter 

 being far more plentiful, about 90 per cent. 



(5) The species hibernates in the egg form; hatching oc- 

 curs about May 25 to June 10 in Maine; and the nymphs pass 

 through five instars of about six or seven days each, adults oc- 

 curring from early July, mating and laying eggs from July 10 

 to August 1 for the short-winged forms necessarily in the fields 

 where the females have developed. 



(6) The eggs are laid in stems of grass or clover in fields 

 where females have grown, being thrust through the wall of 

 the stem and held by an expanded cap which is firmly held by 

 the walls of the stem, the egg being protected in the hollow of 

 the stem and in this position remain for at least eight or nine 

 months before hatching. 



(7) Measures for control so far evident and based on 

 habits determined will consist especially of rotation, with prob- 

 ably some advantage from burning, early cutting, pasturing 

 heavily in fall, and possibly by mechanical devices for captur- 

 ing the nymphs or adults. 



(8) The spread of the insect should be prevented by care 

 in the disposition of timothy hay moved to a distance. No hay 

 from an infested district should be allowed to be scattered in or 

 near meadows in localities where the insect is not already pres- 

 ent. 



(9) Natural enemies consist so far as at present known 

 of spiders, the predacious damsel bugs, Reduviolus jerus, a 

 tachnid fly, Phorantha occidentis, and an undetermined species 

 and a species of fungus, Entomophthora sp. 



