83 



KiLEY, C. Y.— [The Chinch Bug in New York.] (Science, v. 2, 

 p. 621. Reprinted in substance in Rural New Yorker, Dec. 

 15, 1883.) 



Questions Lintner's conclusion that the injurious manifestation 

 of the chinch bug in New York is clue to an invasion, As the 

 species has been found much farther north it seems more rational 

 to suppose that it has only unduly increased where, though present^, 

 it had not heretofore been detected. The apparent lack of sus- 

 ceptibility to wet weather he attributes to the excessive multipli- 

 cation of the insect during the very dry seasons of 1880 and 1881, 

 and its ability, demonstrated in the West, to brave unfavorable 

 weather for a time. This will tell, however, on the hibernating 

 bugs. 



Illinois CRors for 1883. Circular No. 106 [of the Department 

 of Agriculture], pp. 140, 145. Correspondents' Eemarks. 



Johnson, Saline, and St. Clair Co's. Corn injured by drouth 

 and chinch bugs. 



Cooke, Matthew. — The Chinch Bug {Micropus leucopterus, Say). 

 (Injurious Insects of the Orchard, Vineyard, Garden, etc., 

 p. 280.) 



General description, with figures. Trenching recommended as a 

 remedial measure. Has not found a single specimen in California. 



Forbes, S. A.— Studies on the Chinch Bug. (Twelfth Kept. State 

 Ent. 111., 1882, pp. 32-63; Brief summary of discussion in 

 Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., v. 2, p. 258.) 



Emphasizes the importance of "patient, thorough, and exhaus- 

 tive research" before the contest with the chinch bug is abandoned 

 as hopeless. Only a fairly complete life history for an average 

 year during its periods of abundance has been made out, and some 

 knowledge gained concerning its susceptibility to wet weather, al- 

 though the exact way in which the bugs are affected by it is un- 

 determined, repeated drenchings seeming to have no effect. 1882 

 an exceptional year. The season opened early, and old bugs 

 appeared in threatening numbers, but prolonged and violent rains 

 in May and June resulted in the almost complete destruction or 

 suppression of the spring brood. The weather changing about July 

 1, eggs were laid in maize, broom-corn, and sorghum, most of them 

 hatching by the middle of that month, matured specimens of this 

 brood being first noted Aug. 8. The last of August a few young of 

 a following brood [ ?] were seen at a single point in Southern Illinois 

 — a local phenomenon. Flight of adults occurred from the middle 

 of September to the middle of October. The bugs could not be 

 found hibernating in or about fields where they had hatched. 

 Concerning insect enemies of the species, the earliest references by 

 Walsh and Shimer are noted, together with items by Webster, 

 Thomas, and Riley; but the statement that ants destroy the eggs of 

 chinch bugs lacks verification by dissection, and though one of them 

 may occasionally be seen with a chinch bug in its mouth their "car-^ 



