310 



INJXIETOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



[Dec. 1895. 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



The " Shy " Bug {Anthocoris sylvestris). 



1 and 2, Perfect insect ; mag. anci nat. size ; 4 and 5, Pupa, mag. and nat. size ; 

 3, Head, with antennae and rostrum. 



Curtis terms this insect Hylophila nemorum, and gives a 

 good description of it in Farm Insects. Mr. Saunders, in his 

 work on the HemiiJleva-Heteroptera, calls it Anthocoris sylves- 

 tris, L., and Anthocoris nemorum, L. ^ It is styled Anthocoris 

 nemorum by Douglas and Scott in their British Hemiptera, 

 and belongs to a family of the same order of insects as the 

 " Chinch Bug," Micropus leucopterus, Say., which causes so 

 much damage to all kinds of corn crops in the United States. 

 The " Shy Bug " is so called by hop planters and workmen in 

 hop districts, because, upon being interrupted, it gets out of 

 sight on the other side of the hop bines and under the leaves 

 as rapidly as it can. In some seasons it seriously injures the 

 hop plants, especially when they are backward and weakly, by 

 piercing the bine with its exceedingly long, pointed sucker. 

 The punctures, or' rather the exudations of sap from them, can 

 be easily seen. If the leading shoots are much pierced it 

 frequently happens that they turn black and die, thus pre- 

 venting those particular bines from going straight up the poles 

 or wires, and causing them to throw out premature and, probably, 

 unfruitful laterals. 



The " Shy Bug " makes its first appearance early in the 

 summer, and remains upon the hop plants throughout the 

 season. If the bug is present in numbers it seriously afiects 

 the progress of the bine, making it unhealthy, and liable to 

 the attacks of insects and fungi. Sometimes in the hop picking 

 season, and especially after hot summers, the pokes, or bags, 

 made of wide meshed sacking, in which the green hops are 

 put, have quantities of " Shy Bugs " upon them, which have 

 come through the meshes, and from the hop cones. In August 



