THE CHINCH BUG. 
7 
Missouri alone, including only the three staple crops of Wheat, Corn, 
and Oats. He mentions several facts which tend to show that this esti- 
mate is low rather than high. In this report Professor Riley also gave 
the first accurate and extended descriptions of the adolescent stages, 
including the egg, and noticed the differences between the number of 
joints in the tarsi in the young and the adult. 
From 1874 to 1881 there were no serious irruptions of this pest, but 
in this year it attracted considerable notice and did a great deal of dam- 
age in some Western States. Much newspaper literature concern- 
ing the insect was published during this year, much of which was 
excited by Thomas’s paper upon the u Relation of Meteorological Condi- 
tions to Insect Development and Particularly to the Chinch Bug.” It 
was during this year also that the u Chinch Bug convention” was held 
at Windsor, Kans., and it was decided to exclude Wheat from cultiva- 
tion as a means of extirpating the pest. 
In 1882 the work of the bug upon timothy grass was discovered in 
Saint Lawrence County, N. Y., for the first time in its history. It in- 
creased and spread in 1883, exciting great alarm, and occasioned several 
articles from the pen of Dr. Lintner, who also issued a circular on reme- 
dies and anticipating further damage. 
Professor Riley in Science (Yol. II, p. 620) and in his Report for 1884 
stated that there was little cause for alarm in New York, and indeed no 
particular damage has since been recorded. In 1885 some damage was 
done in parts of Kansas and Nebraska, and in 1886 still more. Bulletin 
No. 13 of the Di vision of Entomology contains reports of considerable 
damage in the spring of 1886 from Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, and Ne- 
braska and more especially in southern Illinois.. 
During the past year (1887) the injury was marked in these States 
and also in some parts of Missouri, but the interesting point in the his- 
tory of this season has been the occurrence of the insect in immense 
numbers in portions of Virginia and North and South Carolina for the 
first time in many years. As a thorough review of the localities and 
damage this season is desirable, a statement has been drawn up at my 
request by Mr. J. R. Dodge, the statistician of this Department, which 
is submitted herewith. 
Mr. Dodge reports as follows : 
In accordance with your request, I take pleasure in comniuuicating the results of 
inquiries made relative to the geographical distribution of Chinch Bugs during the 
past season, and to the extent of their destruction of growing crops. 
I find indications of their presence throughout the southern and western States, 
but no material injuries to crops are reported except in States bordering on the Mis- 
sissippi River and the Lower Missouri. Kansas, part of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, 
Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota include practically the field of 
their serious operations. 
They attacked wheat and rye first, then barley and oats, and afterward corn, grass, 
millet, sorghum, and broom-corn. As corn, wheat, and oats are the principal tilled 
crops of this area, they represent the principal part of the damage. 
