20 



more to its liking. Its course was quite discernible by the disturbance of the surface sand, 

 although it never appeared in view. In its travels it met an obstruction, a piece of broken 

 pine limb about four inches long and an inch and a-half in diameter, imbedded about an 

 inch in the sand. Against this it struggled until it raised it out of its bed, moving one 

 end along an inch and a half, when it was sufficiently elevated to permit the nymph to 

 pass on without going below its ordinary depth. It had travelled hither and thither over 

 a space of twelve or fourteen inches without stopping, before I left it. It is most amusing 

 to place one on its back and watch it get on its feet again. Although I am afraid the 

 operation is quite indescribable by me, I can tell what it does not do ; it does not spring 

 up like like an Elater ; it does not stretch out its legs as beetles generally do, they being 

 very short, it could not nearly reach with its feet the surface on which it is lying ; it does 

 not seem merely to roll over, for when it has got on its feet, it is in the identical spot it 

 was when on its back. But while one is watching it attentively, it suddenly assumes that 

 hazy, indefinite appearance that anything will when in rapid vibration, and when again 

 distinctly seen it is resting quietly on its feet, but what it did more than vigorously shake 

 itself, or how it accomplished the " presto change," I cannot say. I watched it again and 

 again but could make nothing more of it. 



The species to which these nymphs belonged would be either abdominalis or obsoletus, 

 and they must have been nearing maturity, as some were out on the wing at the time. I 

 took two abdominalis, one of them with a most unseemly length of abdomen, extending 

 full three-fourths of an inch beyond the wings, which I take to be a female. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE CHINCH-BUG (BLISSUS LEUCOPTERUS, Say) 



AT BUFFALO, N. Y. 



BY E. P. VAN DUZEE. 



This pernicious insect has been very abundant here for many years. As early as 1874 

 I found it in considerable numbers among moss on dry, grassy hill-sides at Lancaster, N. Y. 

 This season (1886) it was remarkably abundant in a dry upland hay field near the same 

 locality. I have also taken it at Ridgeway, Ont. Ordinarily the short winged form 

 predominates, but in hot, dry summers, such as those of 1881 and 1886, they mostly 

 acquire fully developed membranes. I find on comparison with a lot of perhaps one 

 hundred fully developed examples from Kansas, that ours are quite uniformly larger and 

 more robust, with longer hairs on the pronotum. 



Professor J. A. Lintner says (Second Annual Report N. Y. State Ent., page 150) that, 

 previous to its appearance in St. Lawrence county in 1882, the only recorded occurrence of 

 this insect in New York State is that mentioned by Dr. Fitch (Second Report, 1856, 

 p. 287). From this it appears that it has not been recorded, if indeed it occurs generally 

 in this State. Its early- introduction at this locality is only natural, considering the 

 immense grain traffic which yearly passes through this city direct from the infected States 

 of the West, on its way to the seaboard ; yet it does seem strange that its first appearance 

 in sufficient numbers to attract general attention should have been in Northern New York 

 quite aside from any of the main lines of transportation, unless, as Professor Riley su^crests 

 (Science, vol. ii., p. 621), it be a native species, which, through an unusual series of 

 favouring circumstances, has increased enormously in certain localities. That it has not 

 been reported as an injurious insect in this locality seems to me no proof that it has not 

 been injurious. To be sure, it has not appeared in such overwhelming numbers as to force 

 itself upon public notice as in other places, but from my own observations I think that no 

 inconsiderable part of the injury to hay fields charged to the dry weather is in reality the 

 work of this insect, or rather the combined effect of the two. For example, the hay field 

 at Lancaster mentioned above, which last year yielded an abundant crop, is literally ruined 

 and will have to be plowed under in the spring, while other fields less protected, where the 

 bug was not found in numbers, escaped injury ; and I know of several other fields near 

 this city apparently affected in the same manner. 



