198 HEMIPTEEA. 



contained in the first volume of their interesting " Introduc- 

 tion to Entomology." " America suffers in its wheat and 

 maize from the attack of an insect, which, for what reason I 

 know not, is called the chinch-bug fly. It appears to be 

 apterous, and is said in scent and color to resemble the bed- 

 bug. They travel in immense columns from field to field, like 

 locusts, destroying everything as they proceed ; but their 

 injuries are confined to the States south of the 40th degree of 

 north latitude. From this account," add Kirby and Spence, 

 " the depredator here noticed should belong to the tribe 

 Geooorisce, Latr. ; but it seems very difficult to conceive how 

 an insect that lives by suction, and has no mandibles, could 

 destroy these plants so totally." 



I have ascertained, from an examination of living speci- 

 mens, that the chinch-bug is the Lygceus Leucopterus (Fig. 

 84), or white-winged Lygseus, described by 

 '^' ' Mr. Say, in December, 1831, in a rai'e 



little pamphlet on the " Heteropterous Hc- 

 miptera of North America." It appears, 

 moreover, to belong to the modern genus 

 Rhyparochromus. In its perfect state it is 

 not apterous, but is provided with wings, 

 and then measures about three twentieths 

 of an inch in length. It is readily distinguished by its white 

 wing-covers, upon each of which there is a short central 

 line and a large marginal oval spot of a black color. The 

 rest of the body is black and downy, except the beak, the 

 legs, the antennffi at base, and the hinder edge of the thorax, 

 which are reddish yellow, and the fore part of the thorax, 

 which has a grayish lustre. The young and wingless indi- 

 viduals are at first bright red, changing with age to brown 

 and black, and are always marked with a white band across 

 the back. It is a mistake that these insects are confined to 

 the States south of the 40th degree ; for I have been favored 

 with them by Professor Lathrop, of Beloit College, Wiscon- 

 sin, and by Dr. Le Baron, of Geneva, Illinois. The latter 



