91 



•world. It is comparatively common all through Europe, and is found 

 :also in Abyssinia. It also occurs in different parts of the United States, 

 where it has a general distribution as indicated by Uhler in his cata- 

 logue. Mr. O. Ileidemann, of Washington, informs me that he has taken 

 it in comparative abundance in Washington during the months of May 

 ;and June by sweeping the grass, and that he has also met with it in 

 Maryland, and at Berkeley Springs, in West Virginia, late in June. 

 The European distribution of the si>ecies, according to Elor, is Sw^en, 

 Carland, Russia, between the Ural and the Volga, Germany, Switzer- 

 land, France, Korth Italy, and England. The only European reference 

 to food-plant which I find by a cursory examination is by Kaltenbach, 

 who records it on Chenopodium. 



In July of the present year I found this sjjecies in a limited locality 

 on Onteora Mountain, Greene County, ^N. Y., and only at an elevation 

 •of 2^500 feet. The flora of the mountain was wild, but at the plateau 

 level mentioned some x)atches of timothy had sprung up about the cot- 

 tages, and upon the heads of this grass from July 1 to 15 these plant- 

 bugs were found in extraordinary numbers. Almost every head exam- 

 ined carried from six to fifteen bugs, which were busily engaged in 

 sucking the juice of the plant. I found them in no case puncturing 

 the stem. The heads at this time were in full flower, and while I was 

 called away so early that I was unable to see the full effect of the work 

 of the insects, it seems certain that they must have destroyed all 

 chances of the maturing of the seed. 



While possessing the habit 

 common to many Capsidse of run- 

 ning around the head when ap- 

 proached and hiding on the op- 

 posite side, they were loath to 

 take wing, and were readily cap- 

 tured by sweeping or even by the 

 ■cyanide bottle. All stages of 

 the insect were found, with the 

 excei3tion of the egg. The tim- 

 othy heads were spotted to a 

 certain extent with black excre- 

 ment. 



Perhaps the most curious part of the observation lies in the fact 

 that 200 feet below this point of the mountain not a bug could be 

 found, while 500 feet below there were very extensive timothy meadows 

 in a condition of rank growth, and I spent upwards of an hour in one 

 of these fields searching for the insect, but without success. 



This interesting case of local damage, although occurring to me at 

 first to be dependent upon elevation, must have been due to some 

 ■other as yet undiscovered local cause, or j^erhaps it is a beginning of 

 6757— Xo. 2 3 



Fig, 



Oncognathus binotatus : a, larva ; b, nymph. — 

 enlarged (original). 



I 



