312 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



pearanoe of the young bugs, should either commence careful hand pick- 

 ing at once or should begin the use of some one of the remedies just 

 mentioned. 



Finally, though we have had no opportunity of testing its value in 

 this particular case, we have little doubt but that the kerosene emul- 

 sion will here also prove most satisfactory, as it has been found so 

 effectual against other destructive species of the same sub-order. 



THE TAKXISHED PLANT-BUG. 

 {Lygus Uneolaris. Beauv.)* 

 Order Heteroptera ; Family Capsid m. 

 [Plate IY ; Figs. 3, 4.] 



HISTORY AND HABITS. 



This very destructive plant-bug has long been known in this country. 

 It is found all through the States, north, south, east, and west, and ex- 

 tends down into Mexico. Although it is so injurious to Cabbage that 

 it cannot well be omitted from a treatise of this kind, yet it is only in- 

 cidentally that it feeds upon this plant. It is, in fact, almost omnivor- 

 ous. Harris states that during the very dry summer of 1838, especially 

 in the early part, the gardens and fields of New England fairly swarmed 

 with these little pests, which seemed to feed upon all kinds of herbaceous 

 plants. They did great damage to the potato and other field crops, at- 

 tacking the buds and terminal shoots and sucking out the sap, causing 

 them to dry up and turn black. They also entered the flower gardens 

 and injured the dahlias, marigolds, balsams, and asters. In our Sec- 

 ond Missouri Report we called attention to the great damage done by 

 these bugs to the apple, pear, plum, quince, cherry, and other fruit 

 trees, by puncturing the buds and young twigs, and also spoke of the 

 damage to cabbages and turnips. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, in the Michigan Farmer of about July 15, 1876, 

 mentions that the Tarnished Plant-bug had been doing considerable 

 damage to the wheat and corn crops of Michigan, wheat in certain lo- 

 calities having been injured to the extent of 10 per cent. loss. He also 

 stated that the previous year (1875) he had noticed it seriously injuring 

 potatoes and currant-bushes at Owasso, Mich. 



The statement in Glover's "Hemiptera" as to the carniverous habits 

 of this bug are very misleading. In the first place he cites Le Baron as 

 actually stating that it destroys the eggs of the Colorado Potato-beetle 

 (Doryphora dccemlineata) ; whereas Dr. Le Baron is really very doubtful 

 about it, as he had only the testimony of a "Mr. Jos. Taylor, of Somo- 



* Syxoxymy. — This species was originally described hy Palisot de Beauvois as 

 Coreus Uneolaris, but by some mistake the specific name linearis was attached to the 

 plate. Dr. Harris referred the species to the genus Phytocoris of Fallen, using the 

 specific name Uneolaris. In a foot-note to %he, Flint edition of Harris, Uhler, misled 

 by Beauvois's plate, accuses Dr. Harris of misquoting in using Uneolaris lor lincaiis. 

 Meantime it had been described by Say (ed. Le Conte, I, 340) as Capsus ublineaius. 

 This name we adopted in the American Entomologist, I, 227, 276, 291, and II, 276 ; also, 

 in our Second Missouri Keporr, p. 113, and in our Seventh Missouri Report, p. 2G. 

 Packard, following Uhler s foot-note, uses the name Phytocoris linearis, and Le Baron 

 calls the species Capsus linearis. We learn from private correspondence with Mr. 

 Uhler that it should be placed in the genus Lygus, and the species is given as Lygus 

 Uneolaris in Glover's Manuscript Notes, Hemiptera. Washington, 1876. 



