30 First Report on Economic Zoology . 
or Gopher. This latter animal is most harmful in America, but the 
mole is not with us and its destruction should not be advocated. If 
they are very numerous, as on the land of the Board’s correspondent 
they should be trapped alive and spread over the country. 
SUB-GROUP B. ANIMALS WHICH CAUSE INJURY AND 
DISEASE TO MAN’S VEGETABLE PLANTATIONS. 
Section II. 
Animals Injurious to Horticulture. 
Land Bugs on Chrysanthemums. 
( By (jus pratensis, Eabr.) 
The insects sent to the Board of Agriculture by a correspondent 
from South Norwood, S.E., are Hemiptera-Heteroptera (Bugs) and 
belong to the species known as Lygus pratensis, the L. campestris of 
Linnaeus. This is a very common and widely distributed British 
species and is sometimes harmful to various garden plants. There is, 
however, no record of their attacking chrysanthemums. 
Several other species of land bugs are injurious to garden plants, 
including the so-called potato bugs, Pliytocoris yabulinus, L. and 
Lygus contarninatus, Fallen. 
These bugs injure the plants by sucking out the juices, puncturing 
stem, leaf and blossom. 
The life-history of Lygus pratensis is not known, but it may be 
mentioned that the eggs are usually laid on the plants upon which 
the insects feed — these eggs give rise to the larval or louse stage — 
a creature much like the adult, but wingless ; the next stage, the 
pupal stage, differs in having two bud-like processes on each side of 
the body, the wing buds. 
These plant bugs are injurious in all three stages. Some winter 
as eggs, others hibernate amongst rubbish in hedgerows, etc. 
Treatment. 
The only remedies of any avail against these creatures are 
(i) collecting them by jarring the plants over tarred boards held on 
each side and (ii) treatment by washing. 
