20 THE CHINCH BUG. 
In timothy meadows where the original attack has begun along one 
side and gradually extended inward, the line of separation between 
the entirely dead grass and thai uninjured is frequently not over a yard 
in width, and within this narrow, irregular strip we may have the 
dead and brow n. the yellowing indicating more or less serious injury, 
and the perfectly healthy green of unattacked plants. This many- 
colored border may change but little in the -pace of a week or ten 
day-, excepl to advance wry materially, leaving the grass completely 
dead or dried up. while the clover plants are uninjured. This indi- 
cates that the females, after leaving their place- of hibernation, do not 
spread out over any large area, hut to a certain degree maintain their 
gregarious habits. The author believes that these habits have been 
shaped by some past environment in which the species has been placed 
for a long period of time. as. for illustration, the inhabiting of 
bunches or tuft- of grass more or less isolated from each other. 
T<> what extent pairing takes place in these places of hibernation 
before the insects make their way to the cultivated crop- i- a matter 
of considerable uncertainty. From his own observations the writer 
i- inclined to believe that only a very insignificant minority follow 
t his course. 
In his " Wanderings of Insects " Prof. Karl Sajo has called atten- 
tion to the influence of electrical -tonus in the dispersal of insects, 
and it is quite possible that adult chinch bugs may be thus affected by 
the heavy thunder that usually accompanies these storms, during 
which they seem to disappear from corn plants on which they had 
previously congregated. 
OVIPOSITION. 
According to most writers the eggs are deposited either about ov 
below the surface of the ground, among the roots of the grass or grain. 
It i> nioiv than likely that the place varies with the conditions, as the 
eggs aie not infrequently found above ground about the bases of the 
plants, and even upon the leaves, though Ave have never found them 
there, but have often found them tinder the sheath of grasses. It 
would seem, then, that the eggs require a cool. damp, but not a wet 
local ion. 
EGG PERIOD AND NUMBER OF EGGS DEPOSITED BY EACH FEMALE. 
Doctor Shimer states that each female deposits 500 eggs, scattering 
Lhem over a period of from ten day- to three week-, and as the adult 
develops in fifty-seven to sixty days after the egg- are deposited, or 
about forty-two day- after hatching, it will be -ecu that some of the 
earliest hatched young are well along toward full development by the 
time the last eggs are being deposited. According to Doctor Riley, 
the egg- hatch, on the average, in two week-. 
