26 



PAPEES OX CEREAL AXD EORAGE INSECTS. 



Fig. 13. — Chinch bug: a, b, Eggs; c, newly hatched larva, or 

 nymph; d, its tarsus; e, larva after first molt;/, same after 

 second molt; g, last-stage larva; the natural sizes indicated 

 at sides; h, enlarged leg of perfect bug; j, tarsus of same, 

 still more enlarged; i. proboscis or beak, enlarged. (From 

 Riley.) 



them are forced to seek their food elsewhere. They usually find this 

 in kafir cane fields, and among some of the grasses, where they reach 

 maturity. From here they go to whiter quarters before cold weather. 



STATUS OF THE CHINCH-BUG PROBLEM IN KANSAS, MISSOURI 



AND OKLAHOMA. 



That the seasons of 1907 to 1910have been favorable for the develop- 

 ment of chinch bugs in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma is indicated bv 



reports of injury to crops 

 received during these years. 

 The prevalence of the pest 

 and its depredations depend 

 upon meteorological condi- 

 tions to a great extent, as has 

 been discovered by ento- 

 mologists in the past, and 

 this fact is clearly brought 

 out by the observations 

 herein recorded and made 

 during the four seasons from 

 1907 to 1910, inclusive. 

 The bugs were very numerous in wheat fields in the early spring 

 of 1907 and deposited numbers of eggs on the young wheat plants. 

 Much wheat had been destroyed by the " green bug'' (Toxoptera 

 graminum Rond.) during the spring, and many farmers had plowed 

 up their fields and planted them to corn; sometimes they did not use 

 the gang plow, but planted the corn with a combination lister and 

 planter. There were large numbers of eggs 

 and young of eiiir>ch bugs on this more or less 

 dead wheat that was plowed under, and ap- 

 parently very few were destroyed during the 

 operation of preparing the ground for planting 

 the corn. As soon as the corn plants pushed 

 through the soil they were attacked by the 

 young chinch bugs, with the result that a large 

 amount of young corn was ruined by them. 



In the fields of wheat that had not been 

 plowed under in the spring there were also 

 numbers of bugs, and at harvest time these 

 found their way to other fields of young corn, 

 where they inflicted considerable damage. 

 The summer and fall were favorable for their 



development, and great numbers went into hibernation in grasses. 

 The spring of 1908 opened the first week of March with warm, dry 

 weather and a deficiency of moisture which was alarming for this 

 season of the year and which had a telling effect on young wheat. 

 The chinch bugs flocked to the young wheat from their winter quar- 



Fig. 14. — Chinch bug (Bllssus ku- 

 copterus) : Adult of iong-winged 

 form, much enlarged. (From 

 Webster.) 



