THE INSECT WORLD. 



157 



very strong mixture is necessary, and not more than six or seven 

 parts of water can be added if a good effect is expected. In the 

 case of the four-Hned bug already mentioned, the knowledge 

 that it lays its eggs near the tips of currant and other twigs 

 suggests a careful winter pruning, the cut twigs and branches to 

 be burnt, and in this way injury may be prevented during the 

 year following. This measure is successfully used where shrubby 



Fig. 119. 



Pcecilocapsus lineatiis, four-lined plant-bug, natural size and enlarged : also egg mass 

 in currant, and, at e, a single egg, greatly enlarged. 



or woody plants are attacked ; but on succulent annuals, collect- 

 ing the insects in the morning, before they have become active, 

 by shaking them into some sort of receptacle, is the most satis- 

 factory method. 



In the Cotton belt there was no more troublesome insect, some 

 years ago, than the red-bug," or cotton-stainer," Dysderciis 

 suturelhis, so named from the fact that its excrement, voided in 

 the opening bolls, stained the cotton red, and thus caused it to 

 become of inferior value. Since cotton-seed has become almost 

 as valuable as the cotton itself, and is now completely used up, 

 it has been found that these insects have become practically harm- 

 less. It seems that they were enabled to multiply unduly in the 

 heaps of decaying cotton-seed, and since at present no such heaps 

 exist they cannot increase so rapidly. They also attack oranges 

 in Florida, and Professor Comstock recommends that they be 



