THE BANDED LEAF-FOOTED PLANT-BUG. 47 



locally as the " blood sucker," were received with, the information that 

 they injure potato tops in the spring and devour as well fruits of all 

 kinds, and especially watermelon by sucking the stems close to the 

 melon. Sometimes half a dozen of these bugs may be seen at work on a 

 single stem. They were described as a general nuisance, but had never 

 been observed in such great numbers in previous years as to do the 

 serious damage noticed in 1898. These bugs were also stated to attack 

 the pecans, which were injured by lepidopterous larvse, and they were 

 believed to be at least responsible for a portion of the damage done to 

 these trees. Attack was first noticed about the first of May, when a 

 great many of the bugs were observed in the tops of the trees. 



May 22, 1897, we received from Mr. Thomas H. Maxwell, Keller, Ga., 

 specimens of this bug, with the statement in an accompanying letter 

 that the species injured young pear trees, stinging the fruit. 



June 23, 1898, Mr. J. B. Rudulph, statistical correspondent of this 

 Department, sent specimens from Pleasant Hill, Ala., with the state- 

 ment that the species had been injurious that year and the two preced- 

 ing years. There seemed to be thousands of them. On nearly every 

 ripening peach there were from two to four individuals. The bugs were 

 first noticed the 20th of May. Our correspondent was satisfied that all 

 of his early peaches had been cut short by the work of this insect. 



This plant-bug, which is common and injurious to various plants 

 throughout the South, has been reported by Mr. A. L. Quaintance (Fla. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 34, p. 300) as an enemy of melons in Florida. He 

 states that frequently it " is the cause of serious trouble, by puncturing 

 the stems of plants and sucking their saxj, causing them to wilt, and, not 

 unfrequently, bringing about their death." The same writer records 

 attack by this species to strawberry, the fruit and tender shoots of 

 which it injures. Nymphs were also observed on the Irish potato, and 

 this may hence be considered a probable food plant (L. c, Bui. 42, pp. 

 581, 582). 



This species first came into prominence as a pest through its injuries 

 to the orange in the South, and an account of it was given, together 

 with an illustration which is here reproduced (fig. 10), by the late 

 H. G. Hubbard in his bulletin entitled u Insects affecting the orange," 

 'published by this Department in 1885 (pp. 168, 169). As with the pre- 

 vious species the dilatation of the hind tibia3 exhibits considerable vari- 

 ation, many individuals showing more dilated tibiae than those figured. 

 Oranges are attacked while in fruit, and injury is also reported to the 

 strawberry, peach, plum, currant, eggplant, cotton bolls, and "even 

 potatoes." 



The normal food plant of this bug is the yellow thistle ( Carduus 

 spinosissimus), and it is recommended that thistles and like plants 

 which might serve as breeding places for this species should be cut 

 down and destroyed where they are found growing in the vicinity of 

 truck or garden crops, or orchards. 



The most obvious differences between this species and oppositus have 

 been pointed out in the consideration of the latter. 



