AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY, 



poisonous, and must be used with that fact in mind. Professor 

 Comstock states that where, in travelHng, ' * one is forced to lodge 

 at places infested by these insects, or by fleas, protection from 

 them can be had by sprinkling a small quantity of pyrethrum 

 powder between the sheets of the bed on retiring. ' ' 



Rather closely allied to the bed-bug in structure, if not in habit, 

 are a number of very small, flat species, with fully developed 

 wing-covers, which are usually found on flowers, feeding upon yet 

 smaller insects and perhaps also on eggs. They belong to the 

 family A?ithocoridt^, and the most common is a minute black in- 

 sect with yellow-tipped wings, known as 

 the "insidious flower-bug," Triphleps in- 

 sidiosus, credited with feeding among others 

 upon the insects in Phylloxera galls. 



Now follow the CapsidiB, containing a 

 long series of species softer in texture than 

 most of those heretofore described. They 

 are plant bugs par excellence, found on 

 vegetation of all kinds, frequently in very 

 great numbers, and feeding upon their 

 juices. The wing- covers are soft and flex- 

 . . . ible throughout, though thickened basally. 



Triphleps mstdiosus, the o 7 o ^ j 



" insidious flower-bug." They puucturc leaf, twig, stem, or flower, 

 and, where these punctures have been 

 made, there is usually a drying of the tissue which interrupts the 

 nourishment of the plant and often causes injury. As a rule, the 

 species are green or yellowish in color, sometimes black speckled, 

 and occasionally with reddish markings. In form they vary, 

 being sometimes broadly oval, sometimes quite narrow. The 

 antennae are usually long and prominent, and the ' * buggy' ' odor 

 is well developed. We have a number of species abundant 

 enough to be injurious, and the question of dealing with them is 

 sometimes complicated. The insects winter in different stages ; 

 often as an egg laid in twigs, as with the " four-lined plant-bug," 

 Pcecilocapsus lineatus, attacking among others currant and goose- 

 berry bushes. The application of insecticides to kill plant-bugs 

 has been found unsatisfactory. They resist even the kerosene 

 emulsion quite strongly, and in order to kill adults it cannot be 

 diluted more than five times. Even against immature forms a 



