78 



Observations on the various Bisects 



abundant upon the plants, and they never observed them before ; 

 but if their attention had been directed to the subject earlier, 

 they would in all probability have detected the same insects upon 

 the same plants every year, in greater or less abundance. 



In July and August, 1846, I had numbers of specimens trans- 

 mitted to me from Devon, Winchester, and various counties, the 

 parties expressing a strong conviction that these Potato-bugs were 

 the cause of the disease. The cry was raised again in 1847, in 

 the same months, which led to the subject being noticed in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle.* 



That these insects live upon the foliage of the potatoes there 

 can be no question, and therefore it will be advisable to identify 

 the species so that at any future period no unnecessary appre- 

 hensions may be entertained should they appear in unusual 

 numbers. 



They all belong to the Order Hemiptera, the Family 

 CorisfdvE, and the Genus Lygus or Phytocoris. One species 

 appearing different from any described, I have named it 



11. L. Solani (fig. 20; c, the natural length). It is green, 

 shining, punctured, and clothed with soft depressed pale hairs : 

 head small, smooth, transverse- oval, and ochreous ; face tri- 

 angular, with a long 4-jointed rostrum bent under the breast in 

 repose: the eyes are small, prominent, lateral, oval, and black; 

 the two horns are ochreous, brown beyond the middle, long, very 

 slender, angulated, and 4-jointed, basal joint the stoutest, longer 

 than the head, 2nd twice as long, 3rd longer, 4th shorter than 

 the first. Thorax ochreous, convex, triangular, truncated before, 

 twice as broad as the head at the base ; scutel triangular : abdo- 

 men entirely green ; the female with a channel beneath, enclosing 

 the horny oviduct : elytra very long, elliptical, as broad as the 

 thorax, resting horizontally on the back ; stigma green, like the 

 elytra ; membrane transparent, iridescent, the nervures bright 

 green: wings ample, transparent : 6 long slender ochreous legs, 

 hinder very long ; feet ochreous, all pitchy at their tips, and ter- 

 minated by 2 claws ; hinder thighs the stoutest, the shanks very 

 long, slender and spiny: length nearly 3 lines. It is possible 

 this species may be a variety only of the Cimex pabulinus of Lin- 

 naeus, or the Phytocoins prasinus of Fallen, f 



As soon as these insects leave the egg they can runabout, being 

 fnrnished with legs, horns, and a rostrum like the parents, but 

 they are deprived of the organs of flight. As they grow they 

 attain 2 lobes on the back, which enclose the future elytra and 

 wings, and then they are called Pupae (fig. 21 ; d, the natural 

 length). In every stage of their existence they feed in the same 



* Vol. vii. p. 468. 



f Curtis's Guide, Genera 1100 and 1103. 



