Dee. 1895.] 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



311 



last these insects were found in many of the cones, and upon 

 close investigation it was seen that the cones containing them 

 also contained aphides — lice — and, further, that there were no 

 " Shy Bugs " in cones that were free from aphides. No trace 

 of piercing was found in any of the strigs of the cones infested 

 by the " Shy Bugs," their object clearly being to feed upon the 

 aphides. In further illustration of this point, it may be observed 

 that some specimens of the bug were put into glass-topped 

 cases, and supplied with aphides from time to time, together 

 with succulent shoots of various plants. When the aphides were 

 put into the cases the Shy Bugs " ran at them at once fero- 

 ciously and transfixed them with their sharp suckers, or beaks, 

 upon which the aphides, however large, were retained in spite 

 of incessant stragglings. When the contents of one aphis were 

 sucked up the beak was withdrawn and another aphis attacked. 

 One " Shy Bug " destroyed 40 aphides in 10 hours. This habit 

 of insects of this and allied families has been alluded to by 

 Curtis, Stainton, Saunders, and other entomologists, but their 

 extreme usefulness in this direction has never been so palpably 

 demonstrated. In one hop ground, carefully watched for a 

 month before hop picking, it was entirely due to the presence 

 of " Shy Bugs " in large numbers, and their destruction of the 

 aphides in the cones, that the cones did not become " black at the 

 strig." There is no doubt that the unusual heat of the summer 

 of 1895 favoured the increase of the Anthocoris sylvestris, and 

 that two, and perhaps three, generations were produced in many 

 cases. 



Description and Life History. 



The full-grown insect is a sixth of an inch in length. It 

 is smooth and shining ; the head, thorax, and scutellum, or shield, 

 are dark red. The wing cases are pale yellow, with dark red 

 margins, and a round spot on the membranes, and the legs, six 

 in number, are honey coloured, with black feet. There are four 

 joints to the long antennse, of which the end joint is black, the 

 second and third light straw colour, and the basal joint reddish 

 black. 



The females lay their eggs, which are long shaped and 

 whitish (becoming reddish later on), in the spring time, when the 

 weather is warm. The number of eggs produced is very 

 large. Larvae, which are lighter in colour than the perfect 

 insect and entirely without wings, come from the eggs in about 

 14 days, and begin to feed at once upon the bines. It is believed 

 that there are two moults before the pupa, or nymph stage is 

 reached. There is certainly one, after which the larva is of a 

 darker red, and rudimentary wings, or " wing-pads," as Packard 

 calls them, are visible. When the pupal stage is assumed, there 

 is not much change in colour or appearance, except that the 

 wing-pads are larger and extend nearly half way down the 

 body. At the time of the final transformation the insect assumes 



