61 



of sprinkling it with water (an artificial shower), as the best means for its extermination. 

 In the present instance, the bug obstinately persists in multiplying, contrary to all rule. 

 The past year and the present have both been years of excessive rainfall in St. Lawrence 

 county. Spring, summer and autumn have been exceptionally wet. In the spring, I 

 am told that heavy and continued rains flooded meadows now showing the chinch-bug 

 attack. At haying time, when the bugs were young, and, according to all the statements 

 hitherto made, readily killed by wet, the rains were so frequent and severe, that the 

 grass cut could only be secured with difficulty. Upon Mr. King's farm, much of it was 

 drawn in, upon favourable days, by improving the opportunity of extending the labour 

 into hours after nightfall. At the present time grass is lying in fields in stacks, which 

 could not be gathered, owing to continued rain, and fields of oats are still unharvested. " 



This insect belongs to the order Hemiptera, which includes all true bugs. These 

 are all furnished with a sharp proboscis or beak by which the substance they feed on is 

 pierced and its juices extracted by suction. This piercer when the insect is at rest is 

 bent beneath the body. The chinch-bug belongs to a sub-division of the hemiptera 

 known as the half- wing bugs (Heteroptera), and to this same group the well-known bed 

 pest belongs, and they both give off the same disagreeable odour when touched. 



The accompanying figures will aid in making clear the life history of this species. 



At a and h (Figure 30) the eggs are shown 

 much magnified, the short lines at the 

 side of all these figures indicate their 

 natural size. These eggs are about one 

 thirty-third of an inch long, of a long oval 

 form with the top squarely cut off. When 

 at first laid they are pale in colour and 

 semi-transparent, but shortly they change 

 to an amber shade and finally in part to 

 red as they approach maturity. The 

 newly hatched larva shown at c in the 

 figure is pale yellow, with an orange- 

 coloured patch on the abdomen ; very soon 

 the whole bod}^ becomes red, except the first 

 two joints of the abdomen which remain yellowish. With the growth of the insect the 

 red colour becomes quite bright and contrasts strongly with the pale band as shown at 

 e and in a more marked manner at /. As the insect approaches full growth the head 

 and thorax become dusky in colour, and the abdomen of a duller shade of red. At g the 

 pupa is represented, in which stage the insect loses none of its activity but gradually 

 becomes duller and darker in colour. At h one of the legs of the insect is shown 

 enlarged and at j the tip of the same still more highly magnified, while at i the jointed 

 proboscis or beak is represented. 



In figure 31 we have a view of the perfect insect, also magnified, the 'short line 

 behind it showing its natural size. It is about one-tenth of an 

 inch long and about one-third of its length broad. In colour it is 

 black, and when examined with a magnifying lens the body* is 

 seen to be slightly hairy. The wing covers, which lie flat upon its 

 back, are white with black veins and a black spot on each side 

 about the middle and towards the outer margin. The feet and 

 the outer swollen joints of the antennje are yellow, the legs and 

 the basal joints of the antennae black. 



Its size seems to be quite out of proportion to its destructive 

 powers, and minute though it be it nevertheless inflicts an almost 

 incredible amount of injury in certain years upon the grain and corn 

 crops. Prof. Lintner states that "In 1864, its injuries in the State 

 of Illinois to wheat and corn alone were computed at seventy-three 

 millions of dollars. This was a year of unusual excess, but it is 

 Fig. 31. not of rare occurrence that a State should suffer a loss of from 



twelve to fifteen millions of dollars in a single year. When the 



Fig. 30. 



