276 Forty-first Report on the State Museum. 



Professor Forbes, in the Thirteenth Illinois Eeport, states that it was 

 especially abundant near Anna, in Southern Illinois, where it was feeding 

 on the leaves of the strawberry, as was demonstrated by dissection of its 

 stomach. 



Professor F. M. Webster has observed it in Indiana feeding injuriously 

 upon the potato. He states that in a locality visited by him, where the 

 Colorado potato-beetle was common, far more damage had been done in 

 eating the leaves by the adult Systena blanda, and to a less degree by Sys- 

 tena frontalis {Report Commis. Agricul. for 1887, p. 150). 



Preventives and. Remedies. 



This beetle may not be expected to prove a very serious pest of the cot- 

 ton. As it seems, from the communication sent, to be so associated with 

 the ragweed [Ambrosia], a natural and simple preventive of its injuries 

 should be found in the destruction of the weed on which it may be sup- 

 posed to feed and develop in the autumn. 



When found on the young cotton plants, relief can be obtained by 

 sprinkling dust, fine sand, ashes, or some similar material over the leaves 

 when wet with dew, or any other of the methods commonly resorted to 

 for protection from the cucumber flea-beetle, Crepiclodera cucumeris, an 

 insect having similar habits, and to which it is nearly allied. The Systenas 

 are not regarded as injurious insects usually. Their attacks are often 

 quite local, although serious at times, as that of the red-headed Systena, 

 Systena frontalis (Fabr.), has been in portions of the Province of Ontario on 

 grapevines,* and also, on many garden plants the present year (1887), land 

 Systena niarginalis (111.) on oaks, elms, and hickory in the same province. 



The habitat of S. blanda is given as "Atlantic region and New Mexico." 



Its range seems to embrace several of the Western States. I have no 

 knowledge of its occurrence within the State of New York. 



Iieptocoris trivittatus (Say). 



The Box-elder Plant-bug. 



(Ord. Hemipteka : Subord : Hetekopteba : Fam. Bekytid^.) 



Lygceiis trivittatus Sat: in Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., iv, 1825, p. 322; Compl. Writ., Lee. 



edit., 1883, p. 246. 

 Leptocoris trivittatus Stal: Enum. Hemipt., i, , p. 226. 



Glotee: MS. Notes Journ.— Hemipt., 1876, p. 43, pi. 4, flg. 24. 

 Uhlbe: List Hemipt. West Miss. Eiv., 1876, p. 35 ; in Bull. U. S. G.-G. 

 Surv. Terr., i, 1876, p. 301; Ch. List Hemipt. N. A., 1886, p. 13, No. 606. 

 Popbnoe: in Amer. Entomol., iii, 1880, p. 162. 

 Lintnee: in Count. Gent, Hi, 1887, p. 69. 



Riley: in Bull. No. 12, Div. Entomol.— U. S. Dept. Agricul., 1886, p. 

 41, pi. 1, flg. 5. 



Numbers Occurring- on Shade Trees. 



A number of examples of a hemipterous insect, belonging to the "plant 

 bugs," were received in their living state early in January, from Sterling, 

 Kansas. Although they had not been observed as inflicting any injury 



* Saunder's Insects Injurious to Fruits, 1883, p. 283. 

 tThe Ottawa Naturalist, ii, 1888, page 22. 



