16 THE CHINCH BUG. 
Prof. Herbert Osborn,* in giving a summary of his observations on 
the chinch bug in Iowa in 1894, states that "In a great majority of 
cases, 90 per cent or more, the infested fields were directly adjacent to 
hedges or thickets or belts of timber, and iu 75 per cent Osage orange 
hedges were the most available shelter. In about 13 per cent of the 
cases the evidence showed hibernation in grass and weeds, and in some 
of these cases there could scarcely be a doubt that the hibernating bugs 
were protected by a heavy growth of grass or weeds and that they 
moved from these directly into the adjacent grain fields." Prof. Law- 
rence Bruner had previously called attention to the fact that the 
chinch bug hibernated in great numbers about Osage orange hedges in 
Nebraska. Dr. Lugger, in Minnesota, gives the following as offering 
shelter to the bugs during winter: "Rubbish, of all kinds, but chiefly 
that of hedges, wind-breaks, and along the edges of woods, as well as 
corn fodder, logs, and even loose bark and stones." 
Just why an insect that is apparently so unaffected by cold, even 
under the most adverse circumstances, should seek shelter at all from 
the elements is somewhat of a problem. While drenching rains are 
beyond all possible doubt fatal to the newly hatched young, the adult 
bugs seem to be almost proof against either wet or cold weather. It is 
doubtless true that very many individuals die in their winter quarters, 
and in fact I have found these dead in considerable numbers in some 
instances during early spring, but it seems at least doubtful if either 
cold or wet would entirely account for this fatality. I can but feel 
that, somewhere and at some period in the past, this hibernation has 
been more for protection from natural enemies than against the ele- 
ments, though of course there might have been other reasons not dis- 
cernible under its changed environment. The pupa hides away to molt, 
though it does not appear that this course is followed in the earlier 
stages, and the reasons for this are not at all clear. That the adult is 
able to withstand combined cold and wet weather is amply proved by 
the observations of several people. Dr. Hy. Shinier, in Illinois, found 
that those which were in corn husks filled with ice, even inclosing the 
chinch bugs themselves in the crystallized element, when they were 
thawed out were able to run about, apparently unaffected by a tem- 
perature that had varied from 15° to 20° below zero Fah. It seemed that 
when exposed to the sweeping prairie winds at that temperature, with 
no protecting cover, they perished. A Mr. G. A. Waters, in the Farm- 
ers' Review for October 19, 1887, relates that a bunch of fodder having 
fallen into a ditch, washed out near a corn shock by heavy rains, became 
overflowed with water that stood over the fodder long enough for a 
sheet of ice to form over it. When the water had subsided the corn 
was husked and a number of chinch bugs were found among the ears, 
where they had been immersed for a week or more; yet on being 
exposed to the warm sun they began to crawl about in a lively manner. 
* Chinch Bug Observations in Iowa in 1894, Insect Life, Vol. VII, pp. 230-231. 
