14 THE CHINCH BUG. 
late as the forepart of October I met several of these insects in the 
pupa state, and some of these I do not doubt would pass the winter in 
that state, and therefore would not deposit their eggs until the follow- 
ing spring." That he did not find these pupre in New York is shown 
by his statement on page 287, of the same report, to the effect that he 
had " met with but three specimens in New York, occurring on willows 
in the spring of 1847 and May 12, 1851." As shown farther on in this 
bulletin, there is no proof that these pupie did not develop to adults 
before winter, or die before spring, and the conditions indicated would 
almost presuppose that hibernation would take place on the prairies 
where the insects were observed by Dr. Fitch. From personal recol- 
lection I know that that section of the country was, at the time men- 
tioned, but thinly populated, and there were still very extensive tracts 
of the original prairie grasses miles distant from woodlands. 
In an interesting note by Mr. E. A. Schwarz * on the hibernation of 
the chinch bug, in discussing Mr. Marlatt's paper, previously mentioned, 
attention is called to the fact that the hibernation of the chinch bug 
had been observed by him, in its maritime home, in the vicinity of 
Fortress Monroe, Ya., which locality he had been in the habit of 
visiting for a number of years, during the first warm days of spring. 
The maritime flora and fauna are here late to awake, and most insects 
peculiar to the seacoast can still be found in their winter quarters by 
the end of April. By pulling up any good-sized stool of grass and 
beating it out on the smooth surface of the sand or over a cloth a 
multitude of various insects are sure to be found, and among them 
always plenty of chinch bugs. These stools of grass not only serve as 
winter quarters, but in summer the chinch bugs crawl into them to 
protect themselves during the daytime from the fierce rays of the sun. 
In the timothy meadows of northeastern Ohio a similar phenomenon 
may be observed, and I have witnessed cases where the chinch bugs 
had commenced their operations along one side and worked part way 
across the field, killing the timothy as they advanced, and continuing 
their depredations the following year precisely where they suspended 
work the autumn before, the long- winged individuals only migrating 
in the intervening time. Thus the forms infesting this region have 
deteriorated from their maritime progenitors, and the short- winged 
individuals at least are more primitive than the more highly developed 
and specialized long-winged form inhabiting the country to the west. 
I believe that a careful survey of the timothy meadows of New York 
and New England, and perhaps a more laborious study of those of 
Ontario, Canada, and of Michigan, would reveal a similar condition, 
though possibly to a less degree than at present exists in northeastern 
Ohio. Also if these same timothy meadows were to be burned over 
regularly each autumn the short-winged form would within half a 
century become nearly or quite eliminated, though the total amount of 
Insect Life, Vol, VII. pp. 420-422, 1895. 
