CHINCH BUG WEST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 33 



under boards, or in any other place. There were not a great many 

 bugs in any one place, however, and it would be rather difficult to 

 make a conclusive comparison between the two widely separated 

 localities, although the indications are that the majority of the bugs 

 seek the thick grasses in which to hibernate. 



The destruction of the hibernating chinch bugs is of much impor- 

 tance; it has been discussed frequently and is strongly recommended 

 by entomologists throughout the United States. As the methods of 

 farming, the prevailing crops, and the wild grasses vary in different 

 localities where chinch bugs occur, the places of hibernation may also 

 vary considerably. 



Mr. C. L. Marlatt, of this bureau, in an article on the hibernation of 

 chinch bugs, a has the following to say: 



In nearly every account of the chinch bug which I have seen, stress has been placed 

 on the hibernation of the adult in rubbish of any sort, such as piles of corn fodder, hay 

 piles, straw piles, and dried leaves along hedgerows. In course of very careful inves- 

 tigation carried on in Kansas during a year of excessive abundance , I failed entirely 

 to find any basis for the above supposition. Repeated careful search throughout the 

 late fall and winter failed to discover a single living chinch bug in such situations. 



Failing to find them in the situations noted, I carried the examination further and 

 finally discovered what is probably the normal hibernating place of the chinch bug 

 in the dense stools of certain of the wild grasses, such as the blue stem and other sorts. 

 * * * So marked is this hibernating habit that it is reasonable to infer that it is the 

 normal and ancient one of the species, the natural food plant of which, before the 

 advent of settlement and growth of the cereals, must have been some of our native 

 grasses. 



Mr. H. W. Brittcher, in regard to hibernation, 6 says: 



* * * they may frequently be found, more or less closely crowded, low down 

 among the stems of clumps of wild rushes and grasses, often working their way down 

 between the stems and the soil. 



He recommends burning the sedges in which careful examination 

 showed the bugs to be abundant. It must be remembered that in 

 Maine it is the short- winged form that prevails and "is there a grass 

 as well as grain destroying insect. 



In regard to hibernation, Dr. S. A. Forbes, State entomologist of 

 Illinois, says: 



On the 7th of November a careful search was made in corn that had previously been 

 badly infested by them, but none were to be seen upon the stalks or under the rubbish 

 on the ground in the field ; in the thickly matted grass adjacent only a single specimen 

 was discovered by 15 minutes' search. On the 14th of this month the weather was 

 cold and raw, and the ground was frozen about the hills of corn from an inch to an 

 inch and a half in depth ; a very few bugs were now found in the crevices of the ground, 

 among the roots near the surface. At Champaign, on the 15th, I visited again the field 

 of Bogardus and Johnson, making a careful search for hibernating individuals about the 



a Insect Life, vol. 7, pp. 232-234, 1894. 



&19th Ann. Rept. Maine Agr. Exp. Sta., 1903, p. 42, 1904. 



cl2th Ann. Rept. State Ent. of 111., pp. 37-38, 1903. 



