REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. ' 391 



I only saw the young on wheat in one or two cases during the season. 

 And on July 24, adults, undoubtedly of the same, brood, were observed 

 congregated in great numbers on and about the buds of evening prim- 

 rose. 



THE TARNISHED PLANT-BUG. 



(Lycjus lineolaris, Beauv.) 



I have here to add another to the long list of depree itions of wbich 

 this insect has been accused. 



Late in June and early in July I observed both pupa? and adults 

 puncturing the kernels of wheat and extracting the miik, thus causing 

 them to shrivel and dry up, or to become moldy and discolored. 



Although in numbers they were not excessively abundant, each time 

 an individual satisfied its hunger in this manner it must necessarily 

 have injured to a greater or less extent the kernel it punctured. 



THE SOLDIER-BUG. 

 (Podisus sp.?) 



An undetermined species of Podisus affected wheat in the same man- 

 ner as the preceding, but in the larval as well as in the pupal and adult 

 stages. Besides, being the more common of the two species, was prob- 

 ably the author of the major part of the damage. I have attributed to 

 these two species and the wheat midge a damage of about 5 per cent, to 

 the wheat in the vicinity of Oxford, Ind., but am not now able to draw 

 the line definitely between the work of the midge and the two Hemiptera. 



THE FIELD-CRICKET. 



(Oryllu8 abbreviates Serv.) 



One of the objects of interest that I noted on my first excursion to 

 the wheat- fields alter my arrival in Indiana, on the 4th of June, was a 

 considerable amount of stubble 2 or 3 inches in height in the fields of 

 growing grain. 



Scattered about some of these were the upper parts of the plants 

 thus cut off, and while in some cases these straws were withered and 

 bleached, others seemed freshly cut. Although I visited this field daily, 

 and each morning observed a few additional freshly-cut straws, it was 

 not until the 16th of June that I obtained any clew to the author of 

 this mischief. 



On making my usual rounds on this morning, I happened to observe 

 one of our field crickets coolly cut off a fine straw, and on seeing me 

 suddenly, it dodged out of sight. I noticed these crickets at their work 

 a number of times afterwards, and found in their burrows tender leaves 

 and often parts of the heads which they had evidently dragged from 

 where they had felled them. 



Judging from the nature of these fragments they appeared to prefer 

 the tender leaves and stems to the heads, but fed upon both. 



As the grain n eared maturity, from the excrement about larger areas 

 of harvested plots, and the elongate little coverts so thoroughly asso- 

 ciated with our common gray rabbit (Lepus sylvaticus Bach.) being so 

 frequent in the immediate neighborhood also, the inference was very 

 strong that the crickets were not alone responsible for the injury. On 



