94 
' In answer to our inference that manure might have been used on 
the Jawn and that the insects were thus conveyed to it, Mr. Miller 
wrote, under date of August 25, that such was not the case, but our 
theory that there might be decaying vegetable matter in the soil was 
correct. Four large maple trees had been cut down on this lawn, all 
more or less rotten, and the roots of these were still in the ground. All 
of this goes to support our assumption that the white grubs of this 
species feed upon vegetable humus rather than upon living roots or 
sunilar vegetation. Mr. Miller further writes that about thirty speci- 
mens of the larve were captured while they were crossing bins of coal. 
By listening closely a lump of coal would be heard to move. Locating 
the direction and watching the coal the lump would be seen moving. 
The larve were captured under these lumps. 
REPORTED DAMAGE BY THE GREEN PLANT-BUG, LIODERMA UHLERI 
STAL. 
June 30, 1897, Mr. Peter Nieveen, of Nieveen, 8S. Dak., wrote to this 
Division that the above species was doing great damage to all kinds of 
grain in his section of Charles Mix County. He said that the species 
had been observed along the Missouri River banks for several years on 
trees, but they did no damage to crops until the year 1896. Some 
farmers, our correspondent stated, had lost nearly all of their corn and 
wheat. A field of oats invaded by them was observed to be about two- 
thirds destroyed in just a week from the time that the insects were first 
noticed. 
September 6, 1897, Mr. De Alton Saunders, botanist and entomolo- 
gist of the experiment station of South Dakota, located at Brookings, 
wrote that he had visited the infested region and that this plant-bug 
was doing all that had been claimed concerning it. 
There are Divisional records of the receipt of this species during the 
past two years from E. 8S. Richman, of Logan, Utah, who sent speci- 
mens with the report that the species was doing considerable injury to 
wheat in Millard County, Utah, and from Mr. R. H. Price, of the Texas 
Agricultural Experiment Station at College Station, who reports, under 
date of September 16, 1895, that this species was responsible for the 
destruction of 40 acres of peas and 2 acres of lima beans at Toyahvale, 
Tex. In addition to the localities mentioned, it should be stated that 
this species was described originally from Mexico, and that it was 
recorded also from Colorado, and that we have received it from Tucson, 
Ariz. 
ON THE FOOD HABITS OF THE HARLEQUIN CABBAGE BUG. 
Since the recorded occurrence of Murgantia histrionica Hahn, upon 
asparagus and other plants by the writer in Bulletin No. 7, new series, 
of this Division (p. 80), a number of new observations have been made 
upon its food habits. This insect is now present on every farm and 
Se ee 
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